Motor vehicles – Special wheel base – Having only three wheels
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-26
2002-04-23
Mai, Lanna (Department: 3619)
Motor vehicles
Special wheel base
Having only three wheels
C180S253000, C180S019100, C180S411000, C180S006500, C180S065100, C280S062000, C280S064000, C280S047340, C378S198000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06374937
ABSTRACT:
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
® Copyright 1999, James R. Vance. All rights reserved.
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrights whatsoever.
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to motorized supports for mobile medical imaging systems and methods of manufacture and use thereof. More particularly, this invention relates to improved electrically-powered, motorized, mobile support equipment having means for relatively precisely, mechanically guiding, advancing, retracting and/or propelling one or more types of medical imaging equipment about at least a portion of a body of a patient.
BACKGROUND ART
There are certain medical procedures that are typically conducted using C-arm imaging systems, such as various interventional and endovascular procedures wherein medically related images are taken of arteries, blood vessels, and devices and substances that are placed within the arteries and blood vessels of a patient.
Once the patient is properly situated on a table top, a C-arm of such medical imaging equipment is caused to pass relatively close to or sweep around the pertinent portions of the body of the patient.
Much of such medical imaging equipment or systems currently being used within modern hospitals and clinics are permanently affixed to the ceiling and/or floor of the building. One of the many disadvantages of such equipment or systems is that they require an extensive support structure. Furthermore, since such equipment or systems are permanently attached or affixed to the building, they require placement within one or more specially dedicated rooms. Permanently affixed attachment within a dedicated room dramatically limits the availability of such equipment, creates scheduling problems, and limits the types of procedures that can be done with such equipment.
Since such equipment is usually permanently attached or affixed directly to the building and require substantial support structures, the specially dedicated rooms such equipment is housed within must be extensively prepared, including such tasks as: lining the walls with lead plates; securing tracking, heavy equipment, transformers and cabling to the ceiling and floors; rewiring the room to meet the requirements of the equipment; and constructing building barriers behind which the operators of the equipment must stand. Consequently, the cost to construct such dedicated rooms is very expensive.
The time required to construct, modify and prepare such dedicated rooms and install the associated permanently mounted imaging systems is also very costly, and creates health hazards and problems within what is supposed to be a sterile environment. This is particularly true if such permanently mounted systems are installed in or near operating rooms or emergency wards.
Furthermore, such specially dedicated rooms and associated equipment generally cannot be used during the construction, modification, preparation, installation and testing phases associated with such permanently mounted equipment and systems.
Ceiling suspended systems can create additional problems within what must be a sterile environment within operating rooms. For example, debris must not fall from overhead structures and equipment or from their related and required support structures, tracks, and the like, that are often positioned directly above the patient and the operating table. Furthermore, suspended systems can cause interference with other overhead equipment and devices, such as lighting, sterile room ventilation equipment, and anesthesia devices, that are used within operating rooms.
Due to excessive costs, immobility, and the inflexibility of using such equipment within dedicated rooms, mobile or portable C-arm x-ray imaging systems were created. One example is the Philips BV212 x-ray system. Such systems were sufficiently smaller and mobile to enable the device to be pushed or pulled manually into a surgery or operating room. In other words, such devices were manually pushed or pulled around from room to room within a hospital or clinic.
Once the C-arm is placed into position along side the patient table, the imaging procedures of the blood vessels or tracking/chasing of devices within the blood vessels can be performed. During these procedures, the C-arm device is manually pushed or pulled along the length of the patient table. In most cases, multiple positioning is required in order to perform the entire procedure. For example, typically, a single image is taken with the C-arm over the chest portion of the patient. When the time arrives, a second image is taken with the C-arm repositioned over the thighs of the patient. Thereafter, the C-arm is again repositioned down to the patient's lower extremities where another imaging process is performed. Because of the size, weight, and multitude of simultaneous functions needed to be performed with the mobile C-arm device, it is very difficult and burdensome to accomplish accurate movement of such systems.
In addition, because such mobile C-arm systems are manually maneuvered, it is arduous, if not impossible, to simultaneously move the device longitudinally, transversely and vertically all at the same time, such as within an X-Y coordinate system.
Furthermore, the tracking of medical devices inserted into blood vessels requires rapid movement of the mobile C-arm device in a back and forth series. For example, the chasing or tracking of a catheter tip enters a femoral artery near groin area and then is moved up into the aorta and is moved back and forth repeatedly. This requires precise, quick movements which are extremely difficult to perform by manually maneuvering the C-arm device. This task is very cumbersome, difficult, and often impossible to accomplish using a manual system.
In summary, heretofore C-arm imaging or imaging equipment were either permanently fixed and secured to the floor and/or ceiling of a dedicated room, or consisted of mobile C-arm imaging systems that were manually pushed or pulled about a patient table and throughout the hospital. The key words here are “permanently”, “fixed” and “manually.”
In particular, heretofore, mobile C-arm imaging systems have not had motorized supports, carts or carriages.
There were some radiographic units, used to take a plain X-ray of a patient's body, that were attached to a minimally motorized base, cart or carriage. However, such bases, carts or carriages were motorized only to move in a limited fashion to transport such equipment down a hallway. Due to the size and weight of the equipment, the motorized bases, carts or carriages on these radiographic systems were used just to get the unit from the radiology department up to the patient's bed.
Such radiographic equipment is extremely heavy, bulky and most workers within a hospital or clinic are generally incapable of pushing such heavily weighted units. For example, some of these minimally mobile radiographic units weigh about three-hundred to eight-hundred pounds (300 to 800 lbs.) each. Due to their heavy weight, they are provided with large, imprecise, motorized wheels that simply drive the unit into an elevator or down a hallway. Such motorized wheels are not used during the performance of the medical procedures.
As may be appreciated, the manipulation of such heavy, massive and bulky equipment requires a considerable amount of space and is thus of minor utility where access and moving room is limited. Due to space requirements, operation of this type of equipment generally necessitates use within a considerably large room. Not only does the manipulation of this type of equipment require additional space, but the cumbersome size and shape of the equipment itself severely limits the utility of these devices.
Once positioned adjacent to a patient, such equipment must be manhandled into position a
Galando John
Giamona Joseph
Galando John
Lan Ruth
Mai Lanna
Vance James Richard
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