Surgery – Isolation treatment chambers – Incubators
Reexamination Certificate
2002-04-16
2003-12-23
Gilbert, Samuel G. (Department: 3736)
Surgery
Isolation treatment chambers
Incubators
Reexamination Certificate
active
06666816
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates to infant supports that provide both incubator and warmer configurations, and, more particularly, to temperature control systems for such infant supports during transition between incubator and warmer configurations.
Newborns and premature infants often require isolation in a controlled environment for proper development. Incubators provide such an environment by providing a canopy forming an enclosure surrounding an infant support surface. The environment within the enclosure is controlled so that the oxygen content, air temperature, noise levels and other environmental parameters are maintained at levels conducive to infant development. The air temperature within the enclosure is an environmental factors which highly influences an infant's core temperature as indicated by its skin temperature. Incubators include temperature sensors to provide an indication of the air temperature within the enclosure and an indication of the skin temperature of the infant. The air temperature within the enclosure is adjusted by infusion of warmed air into the enclosure. Warm air infusion is accomplished by a system including a blower or fan for drawing external and/or internal air past a heater for introduction into the enclosure through orifices.
Often newborns and infants also require various procedures to be performed on them by one or more caregivers. While the canopy and walls of an incubator includes access panels and orifices permitting access to an infant within the enclosure, this access is often too limited to perform all of the necessary procedures. Warmers provide relatively unobstructed access to an infant or newborn. Typically when relatively unobstructed access to an infant in a dedicated incubator is required, the infant is moved from the dedicated incubator to a dedicated warmer. The movement disturbs the infant and often requires the removal of sensors and tubes which further disturbs the infant. The move from the incubator to the warner typically does not adversely affect the core temperature of the infant. After the procedures are performed on the infant, the infant is typically returned to an incubator. Insertion of the infant into the incubator requires reconfiguration of the access panels in the walls canopy permitting warmed air to escape from the enclosure. Often the time required for the incubator to stabilize the skin temperature of the infant is unduly long.
Infant supports having the capability to serve as both incubators and warmers are known and were developed to address sone of the issues arising from the use of dedicated incubators and dedicated warmers. Such infant supports are shown and described in Donnelly et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,453,077, issued Sep. 26, 1995; Donnelly et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,817,002, issued Oct. 6, 1998; Moll et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,817,003, issued Oct. 6, 1998; Goldberg et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,759,149, issued Jun. 2, 1998; Newkirk et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,971,913, issued Oct. 26, 1999; Donnelly et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,971,914, issued Oct. 26, 1999; Goldberg et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,022,310, issued Feb. 8, 2000, Goldberg et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,024,694, issued Feb. 15, 2000; Goldberg et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,036,634, issued Mar. 14, 2000, Prows et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,049,924, issued Apr. 18, 2000; Speraw et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,071,228, issued Jun. 6, 2000; Donnelly et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,270,452, issued Aug. 7, 2001; Goldberg et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,296,606, issued Oct. 2, 2001; and Prows et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,345,402, issued Feb. 12, 2002, the complete disclosures of which are hereby expressly incorporated by reference. Such infant supports are also shown and described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/688,528 filed on Oct. 16, 2000 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/571,449, filed on May 16, 2000, assigned to the common assignee of the present application, the complete disclosures of which are hereby expressly incorporated by reference.
Such incubator/warmers include an infant support surface resting on a housing that incorporates systems similar to standard incubators facilitating control of the environment surrounding the infant when the canopy and walls are configured in a closed state and the incubator/warmer is acting in incubator mode. The incubator/warmer
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also includes a radiant heater which directly warms the skin of the infant when some or all of the canopy and walls are configured to an open state and the incubator/warmer is in a warmer configuration. Such incubator/warmers are adapted to facilitate a transition from incubator to warmer configuration and from warmer to incubator configuration. During transition from incubator to warmer configuration, the walls and the canopy are configured to provide relatively unobstructed access to the infant and an infrared radiant heater is activated to directly warm the skin of the infant. When the walls and the canopy are configured to provide such free access, the warm air adjacent the infant dissipates throughout the room in which the incubator/warmer is located. Thus, the air adjacent the infant quickly approaches the ambient air temperature of the room allowing convective heat loss from the infant's skin to the surrounding air. The infrared heater, by directly warming the infant's skin is able to compensate quickly for the convective heat loss from the infant to maintain the core temperature of the infant at desired levels.
When the incubator/warmer is transited from the warmer configuration to the incubator configuration, the walls and canopy are configured to a closed state forming an enclosure around the infant support surface. During transition to the closed state air at or near ambient room temperature may be trapped within the enclosure. Certain infrared radiant heaters are not very effective in maintaining the infant's skin temperature when the walls and the canopy are closed because the canopy and walls may be opaque to infrared radiation or the refractive index of the optically transparent walls and canopy may cause reflection of much of the incident infrared radiation. Thus, after transition from warmer configuration to incubator configuration, time is required to raise the temperature of the air within the enclosure from near ambient room temperature to a temperature sufficient to maintain the skin and core temperature of the infant. It has been found that fluctuations in the core temperature of an infant can adversely affect their development.
The infant support thermal control system disclosed herein controls a convective heater and blower of an infant support during a priming stage when the support is acting as a warmer to reduce the time required for the support to stabilize the temperature of the infant at desired levels after transition to incubator configuration. The control system may also control the radiant heater of an incubator/warmer in warmer configuration and the convective heater and blower of the incubator/warmer after transition between warmer configuration and incubator configuration. The controller operates the blower and convective heater during the priming stage to reduce the time required for the incubator/warmer to stabilize the temperature of the infant at desired levels. The controller may also control infrared heater operation in the warmer configuration to compensate for infant heating attributable to the operation of the blower and convective heater during the primer stage.
Typically, during the incubator configuration, an infant is isolated from the outside environment by side and end walls cooperating with a canopy that surrounds an infant support surface forming an enclosure. A convective heater and blower are provided in the support to direct warm air into the enclosure for controlling the temperature of the air therein. Such a system typically comprises a blower, a heater and passageways. The passageways communicate between the heater and blower to direct warm air produced by the heater and blower into the enclosure. During the warmer mode, the canopy is raised and the en
Barnes & Thornburg
Gilbert Samuel G.
Hill-Rom Services Inc.
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