Surgery – Respiratory method or device – Hypobaric body chamber
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-17
2001-11-27
Weiss, John G. (Department: 3761)
Surgery
Respiratory method or device
Hypobaric body chamber
C128S205260
Reexamination Certificate
active
06321746
ABSTRACT:
ORIGIN OF THE INVENTION
The invention described herein was made by employees of the United States Government and may be manufactured and used by or for the government of the United States of America for governmental purposes without the payment of any royalties thereon or therefor.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to a hyperbaric chamber. Specifically, the invention describes a human hyperbaric chamber and airlock system that is lightweight, portable, stowable and collapsible. It provides the atmospheric pressures (over two atmospheres) required for standard hyperbaric medical treatments, including both hypobaric and hyperbaric decompression sickness. The device can be sized to contain at least one patient and attending medic(s).
2. Background Information and Related Art
Humans can experience altered atmospheric pressures in several environments (aviation, submarine operations, spacecraft, extravehicular space activities, scuba diving, etc.) Decompression sickness can develop under these conditions, occasionally leading to serious or fatal injury. Hyperbaric chambers are successfully used to treat decompression sickness.
Conventional hyperbaric chambers, made of solid metal, are heavy, have permanently high volume, and are not readily portable. For remote operational environments (International Space Station; civilian, commercial and military diving operations), conventional hyperbaric treatment chambers are often unavailable because of their lack of portability. A lightweight, portable, collapsible chamber would provide much-needed decompression sickness treatment capability in remote areas without great weight or stowage penalties. Currently, portable chamber designs exist, but often can not provide maximum standard therapy due to structural and pressure limitations. Their lack of an integral airlock prohibits access to the pressurized patient, thereby markedly decreasing the level of safety and treatment flexibility. Current portable chambers either have a permanent rigid skeleton (which dramatically increases storage volume), or lack internal support (which makes access extremely difficult and unpleasant when the chamber is not pressurized.) Many currently available collapsible chambers are sized for only one occupant (the patient), which limits the ability to treat and care for the patient.
Prior art for flexible hyperbaric chambers includes that described by Santi in U.S. Pat. No. 5,738,093. The present invention differs from the Santi patent in several important respects. First, in Santi the hatch is closed by rotating the hatch engaging threaded sectors. When pressurized, this places a heavy pressure load on the hatch threads, requiring the hatch and supporting structures to be very heavy. Second, the longitudinal and hoop straps supporting the chamber bladder are designed to have large spaces between the straps, requiring the chamber bladder to have a high strength and thickness in order to prevent billowing through the web spaces. Third, the straps are terminated at each end by looping the strap through a slot in a thin metallic fitting and stitching the strap onto itself. The thin metallic fittings are then bolted to the end rings. The slot in the thin metallic fitting forces the webbing to bend in a sharp radius that a) causes a high local stress in the straps, creating potential failure points and reducing the safety margins and b) creates high friction at the interface of the webbing and the thin metallic fitting, causing uneven load sharing between the outside of the loop and the inside of the loop. Fourth, the feed-through provisions for air, instrumentation wiring, pressurization etc. are located in the hatch itself, creating very cumbersome hatch operations due to the restrictive nature of the attached lines to the hatch.
Other examples of inflatable chambers include patents by Cardwell as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,255,673 and Bleiken in U.S. Pat. No. 3,602,221. Both devices lack any type of internal structural support before they are sealed and pressurized. Thus, when the patient is first placed in the collapsed device, part of the device is lying on top of him. These conditions make positioning the patient and equipment inside the device very difficult, poses a possible suffocation exposure, and can induce dangerous anxiety in claustrophobic individuals. Further, these and other typical prior art inflatable chambers are designed for only one occupant, making the presence of a medical attendant impossible.
The sealing systems for prior art inflatable chambers have various limitations. Some, such as disclosed by Miller in U.S. Pat. No. 3,729,002, use a zipper and seal system which is zipped and then reinforced by a loop and rod system inserted externally. Such a system creates high local stresses in the flexible fabric, which must therefore be heavy and bulky.
It would thus be a new and useful improvement to a portable hyperbaric chamber to accomplish the above-described purposes without the limitations of the prior art.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the objectives of this invention are to provide, inter alia, a new and improved portable hyperbaric chamber that:
is lightweight;
is portable;
is collapsible and flexible;
can be stored flat with minimal volume;
provides maximum standard hyperbaric treatment conditions for one patient and an attending medic;
contains an integral airlock for access to the main chamber by personnel and/or equipment;
includes conduits that provide air, medical oxygen, electrical power and communication to both the airlock and chamber;
includes transparent viewports in both the airlock and chamber vessels;
includes hatches that are lightweight and easily engaged and disengaged; and
utilizes multilayer construction of flexible materials that provide an extremely sturdy pressure vessel.
These objectives are addressed by the structure and use of the inventive collapsible hyperbaric chamber. Due to the multilayer construction of flexible materials, the chamber collapses for flat storage with minimal volume, while maintaining a very sturdy pressure vessel capable of resisting punctures as well as internal pressures over four atmospheres. Equipment and personnel can be transferred into and out of the chamber via an integral inflatable airlock attached to the main inflatable chamber. The airlock chamber and main chambers are mated together by a main chamber hatch bulkhead. The main chamber hatch bulkhead includes passages for pressure lines, communication lines, medical oxygen and electrical power, each of which can be dedicated to either the airlock chamber or the main chamber.
The airlock chamber and main chamber each have an internal inflatable skeleton to maintain the chambers' volumes during the non-pressurized mode for ease of access without appreciably decreasing the living volume. Both chambers are constructed of an internal bladder within a restraint layer. The restraint layer is composed of flexible retaining straps running circumferentially and longitudinally around each chamber in a loose but contiguous weave. The internal bladder is oversized to allow the retaining straps to contain the force loads of the internal pressures of the chambers.
Other objects of the invention will become apparent from time to time throughout the specification hereinafter disclosed.
REFERENCES:
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De La Fuente Horacio M
Locke James P.
Schneider William C
Barr Hardie R.
Mitchell Teena
The United States of America as represented by the Administrator
Weiss John G.
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