Surgery – Truss – Pad
Patent
1984-09-21
1986-09-02
Howell, Kyle L.
Surgery
Truss
Pad
73644, A61B 1000
Patent
active
046089896
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a stand-off cell for an ultrasonic scanner head which stand-off cell is mounted so that is can be disconnected, on the scanner head by a clutch facing and is in contact with the patient through a contact surface and which furthermore has a number of free surfaces.
2. Description of Related Art
In medical diagnostics one is often interested in making a so-called biopsy. I.e. that one by means of a needle takes a sample from the patient. The placing of the needle is often critical, wherefore one is interested in being able to determine this exactly. This applies for example when taking samples of the amniotic fluid.
The supervision of the placing of the needle has been tried by means of ultrasonic scanning where emitted ultrasonic impulses are reflected from the needle and its surroundings and are used for making pictures i.e. by means of a micro computer and a cathode ray tube.
Ordinary scanner heads consist of a row of transducer elements placed in line. As an example one can mention the scanner head which is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,346,717. Such scanner heads have the drawback, when used for biopsy that one cannot supervise the first 20-50 mm of the area into which the needle is introduced. This is due to the fact that the needle first has to be led diagonally in under the scanner head before it gets into its supervision area.
In order to avoid this drawback it is known from for example German Patent Specification No. 2.906.474 to use special biopsy heads. They consist of an ordinary linear scanner head through which a canal for introducing the needle has been made. However, in order to make room for this canal one has to remove a number of transducer elements in the center of the head. This creates an area that the scanner head is unable to supervise and this will often be inconvenient when introducing the needle. These special biopsy heads furthermore have the drawback that they are very expensive. They cost even more than a normal scanner head.
If one wishes to supervise an area ultrasonically, which area lies close to the surface of the body, it is furthermore known from for example British Patent Application No. 2.009.563 to use a spacer unit between the scanner itself and the body.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The aim of the invention is to disclose a stand-off cell for a conventional scanner head so that this will be capable of supervising the whole course of the needle in the patient at a biopsy and this is according to the invention achieved in that the stand-off cell is provided with a slit for engaging a needle or a hypodermic needle and that the slit extends between the contact surface and one of the free surfaces.
As the stand-off cell is made of a material with almost the same acoustic impedance as tissue it will be possible to register the whole course of the needle through this. Due to the slit the needle will first penetrate into the patient in a place which lies within the supervision area of the scanner head. In that the needle is placed in a slit it is furthermore achieved that the scanner head with the stand-off cell can be removed from the needle without pulling the needle out of the patient. This makes it possible to perform an easier biopsy just as it makes it possible to utilize the scanner head better. This is now only used during the placing of the needle itself. The stand-off cell can in a simple manner be made of a suitable plastics, and will therefore be very cheap. Thus it becomes possible to be free to dispose of a suitable number of stand-off cells which makes it possible to use any scanner head optimum for many different purposes.
A stand-off cell according to the invention is characterized in that the contact surface is parallel with the clutch facing. (By "clutch facing" is meant the face of the standoff cell which contacts the scanner head.) For many purposes this is a suitable and very simple execution of a stand-off cell.
If the stand-off cell has one or more reflection surfaces it be
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Howell Kyle L.
Medical Innovation Company A/S
Smith Ruth S.
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