Surgery – Respiratory method or device – Respiratory gas supply means enters mouth or tracheotomy...
Patent
1994-06-30
1996-12-10
Burr, Edgar S.
Surgery
Respiratory method or device
Respiratory gas supply means enters mouth or tracheotomy...
12820715, 12820716, 128909, 128912, 604163, A61M 100, A61M 3900
Patent
active
055821650
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention involves in part, a plastic envelope which converts into a sheath for catheters which are used for oxygenation and/or suctioning, particularly for such catheters adapted and intended to be attachable to and detachable from fluid suctioning and/or oxygenation sources. Sheaths of various kinds have been devised for such catheters to protect medical personnel from contact with body fluids and thereby expose such personnel to potential infection unless gloves and other protective clothing are worn. U.S. Pat. No. 4,569,344 discloses the use of a protective sheath for a respiratory device for this purpose. Simple suctioning catheters which include an opening for a therapist's thumb to control suctioning now provide sheaths extending from such opening to the distal end of the catheter but not otherwise. Protective catheter sheaths are also known and used for catheters other than oxygenation/suctioning as illustrated in U.S. patent Nos.: 3,861,395, 4,062,363, 3,709,223 and 3,937,220.
The present invention finds its utility in closed catheter systems for endotracheal insufflation and suctioning of comatose patients. Such patients are kept alive by respirators and accumulate fluid in tracheal areas which must periodically be removed in order to sustain life. In recent years, procedures have been initiated wherein endotracheal catheters used to remove such fluids are sealed within an outer flexible sheath to permit the therapist to place the catheter in the tracheal area and to withdraw the catheter therefrom for lavage cleansing (a process which is repeated several times) without exposing the therapist to contamination. The present state of the art puts such a system in place for a twenty-four hour period during which the same suctioning valve and sheathed catheter are used perhaps ten or more times. Examples of such sheathed catheter apparatus may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,569,344. It is an important objective of the concepts disclosed herein to permit easy and inexpensive replacement of contaminated parts used in an endotracheal suctioning procedure to minimize risk to the patient and to hospital personnel.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The protective catheter sheath of the present invention has several features not found or suggested by the above patents or in prior practice, features which lend themselves cooperatively to catheters which are meant to be attachable and detachable to and from oxygenation and/or suctioning sources and to tracheal devices placed in the patient to be treated. One aspect of this invention is to provide an inexpensive sterile package which converts to a sheath for individual catheters of this type. The invention provides means to convert the package to a protective sheath prior to oxygenation and/or suctioning of a patient and for reconversion of the sheath into a package to contain the catheter for disposal after it has been used. Thus medical personnel are at all times protected from infectious contamination during use of the catheter and after removal of the catheter from a patient.
More specifically with respect to a catheter and fluid sources of the type described, means are provided for connection between the proximate end of the catheter and a fluid source. A sealed elongated envelope of flexible plastic such as polyethylene initially packages and encapsulates the catheter. The package within the meaning and scope of the invention is any elongated plastic envelope which is sealed to contain a single catheter and thus preserve the sterility of the catheter before it is used.
In one of the embodiments disclosed, the fluid source has a catheter connecting means and the proximate end of the catheter includes connecting means for mating with the fluid source connecting means, one of the connecting means comprising a member defining a recess and the other of said connecting means comprising a projecting member. During such connection, the flexible sheet comprising the Catheter encapsulating envelope will be first stretched tautly acro
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Beck Blaine E.
Bryan James F.
Burr Edgar S.
Srivastava V.
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