Surgery – Respiratory method or device
Reexamination Certificate
1997-11-05
2001-01-23
Lewis, Aaron J. (Department: 3735)
Surgery
Respiratory method or device
C128S205120
Reexamination Certificate
active
06176235
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates to a device for extracting mucus from the bronchial and pulmonary walls of people suffering in particular from cystic fibrosis for the purpose of improving their condition significantly by reducing the limitations of medical care.
The lungs are covered by a liquid film a few micrometers thick that is normally very fluid and serves to protect pulmonary cells by insulating them from direct contact with air in the lungs. Cilia oscillate freely in this normally highly fluid liquid.
Recall that the fundamental problem associated with this fatal genetic disease is that all exocrine secretions from different bodily organs are abnormally viscous, the origin of this hyperviscosity among individuals suffering from cystic fibrosis being genetic. For this reason patients afflicted with cystic fibrosis have serious digestive and, especially, respiratory problems. Consequently, the mucus that bathes the lungs, and which is very difficult to remove, gradually obstructs the pulmonary alveoli, making breathing difficult, if not impossible. This mucus, in addition to the mechanical obstruction of the alveoli and interference of the natural oscillation of the cilia, is a significant focus of microbial contamination.
The objective of the present invention is the deliberate, controlled evacuation of all this additional mucus by modification of its rheological properties. Until now medical treatment involving mucus expectoration consisted principally in a form of respiratory kinesitherapy intended to promote the evacuation of mucus by controlled pressure on the patient's thorax. This method is known as clapping. The patient may then evacuate a small part of this mucus by spitting it out. However, the vibrations of the thorax initiated by the doctor doing the clapping are quickly damped in the lungs and elsewhere. Because of the viscosity of the mucus the effectiveness of such a method is also limited to pulmonary regions where the bronchi are sufficiently large in diameters
The invention is based on the property, not previously employed, of the thixotropy that is characteristic of pulmonary mucus. Thixotropy refers to the “phenomenon by which certain mixtures pass from a gel to a liquid state through mild agitation” (Larousse-Grande Dictionnaire Encyclopedique). In this case pulmonary mucus is thixotropic to the extent that it undergoes a transition from a viscous to a liquid state when it is agitated by the vibration of the air contained in the lungs and bronchi. This thixotropy is produced at frequencies of a few hertz, depending on the condition of the patient. The process thus involves generating, throughout the entire volume of the lungs, oscillatory changes in pressure, frequency, and amplitude are appropriate to the specific state of the patient's mucus in order to obtain the minimum viscosity of this mucus.
For these vibrations to affect the entire lung, the air inhaled by the patient must vibrate. Additionally, in order to expulse this mucus, it is preferable that the phenomenon of thixotropy occur during exhalation. Exhalation must thus be controlled and result in expectoration.
It is simple enough to cause the patient to cough—as described below-by superimposing on the oscillatory pressure variations of the volume of air within the lungs a slight negative pressure compared to the atmospheric pressure of this same volume of air. The extent of this negative pressure must be small enough and its duration sufficiently short that it does not lead to the collapse of the bronchial walls. These oscillatory pressure variations are obviously arrested during inhalation so as not to produce any reciprocal movement of the mucus, which would quickly become viscous again.
The device according to the invention described below facilitates dislodgment through fluidification and evacuation of the mucus of the bronchial walls by means of controlled, periodic oscillatory variations in negative pressure compared to atmospheric pressure and increasing variations in amplitude, which are, however, adjustable so that they may be adapted to the specific viscosity of bronchial mucus, which is not provided for in patents DE-A-4029680 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,116,088.
The device referred to in DE-A-4029680 is characterized by the periodic interruption of the air flow exhaled into an adjustable oral nozzle, implying that the magnitude of the vibrations of air pressure is neither adjustable nor increasing. According to patent U.S. Pat. No. 5,116,088, volumes of air pulsed at frequencies that are adjustable but slightly higher in pressure than the pressure of the air inhaled, are delivered throughout the inhalation phase of respiration.
The simple device of the invention represents the fundamental basis of a technology capable of being optimized in its implementations, including features synergistically associated that we choose not to develop here.
This device must respond to the following constraints: 1) it must produce throughout the bronchi and lungs oscillatory variations of negative pressure in the air of the lungs during exhalation, sudden periodic variations of increasing amplitude and frequency that are designed to provoke thixotropy of the pulmonary mucus, 2) it must take advantage of the fluidity of the mucus, causing it to travel to the exterior of the lungs, and evacuate it through the expectoration caused by the predefined negative pressure
REFERENCES:
patent: 2918917 (1959-12-01), Emerson
patent: 3565072 (1971-02-01), Gauthier
patent: 3745991 (1973-07-01), Gauthier et al.
patent: 4054134 (1977-10-01), Kritzer
patent: 4062358 (1977-12-01), Kritzer
patent: 4226233 (1980-10-01), Kritzer
patent: 5193529 (1993-03-01), Labaere
patent: 5233975 (1993-08-01), Choate
patent: 5280784 (1994-01-01), Kohler
patent: 5372126 (1994-12-01), Blau
Benarrouch Jacques
Sangouard Patrick
Baker, Jr. Thomas S.
Lewis Aaron J.
LandOfFree
Oscillatory pressure device for removing the mucus does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Oscillatory pressure device for removing the mucus, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Oscillatory pressure device for removing the mucus will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2504580