Prosthesis (i.e. – artificial body members) – parts thereof – or ai – Larynx – trachea – tracheobronchial prosthesis or combination...
Patent
1994-01-10
1996-01-02
Willse, David H.
Prosthesis (i.e., artificial body members), parts thereof, or ai
Larynx, trachea, tracheobronchial prosthesis or combination...
623 11, 623 12, A61F 204
Patent
active
054804310
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention concerns a tracheal stent for constricted diseased tracheal and/or bronchial sections made out of a plastic shaft.
Furthermore, a tracheal stent is known in the art from U.S. Pat. No. 4,728,328 which is configured in a pipe-shaped fashion and is surrounded by a support spiral. The spiral is coated and wound around the pipe-shaped stent.
A tracheal stent of this kind has become known in the art through U.S. Pat. No. 4,795,465.
The known tracheal stent is comprised from a tracheal arm which splits on one end into two bronchial arms. The tracheal arm as well as the bronchial arms are manufactured from a tube-shaped plastic which is stiff over its entire axial length and forms a stable lumen.
Tracheal stents are normally used when medical application of an artificial tracheal prosthesis is no longer possible or too dangerous. Terminal tumor patients can, by means of suitable palliative measures, have the inner volume of their tracheas kept open for the purposes of breathing in that, by means of an endoscope, inserts or pipe-like stents are introduced into the constricted air pipe. The stents which have been used up to this time exhibit, however, significant disadvantages and insufficiencies in view of the purpose of their use, and with regard to their outer shape, the low mechanical strength of the stent walls, as well as with regard to mucous transport of the natural mucous clearance.
The underlying purpose of the invention is therefore to further improve the known tracheal stent in such a fashion that in can be endoscopically applied without any problems, in that it exhibits sufficient resistance to the pressure from tumors or scars and in that it can adapt to rapid pressure changes in the event of coughing. The seating of the known tracheal stent in the natural trachea is to be improved in such a fashion that it seats with as little pressure as possible on the mucous membrane.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This purpose is achieved in accordance with the invention in that the plastic shaft exhibits means which, in a first manifestation, reduce the outer circumference of the plastic shaft and, in a second manifestation, widen the plastic shaft over the entire axial length to form a lumen along an axis in the plastic shaft, the lumen exhibiting a crosssectional shape of a natural trachea, whereby the plastic shaft is rigid in the ventrolateral region and is highly elastic in the dorsal region.
The tracheal stent in accordance with the invention thereby has the significant advantage that it is capable of exhibiting complicated strongly contrasting plastic elastic properties. It can be situated without problems by means of a tube, and can, with special means, withstand the pressure of tumors in that these means exhibit a buttressing effect with it furthermore being possible for the inventive tracheal stent to adapt to pressure fluctuations during coughing.
The means are, for example, metal clasps made from memory metal which seat on the exterior of the plastic shaft and which, in the ventrolateral region of the plastic shaft, highly stabilize or stiffen the shaft and in the dorsal region allow the plastic shaft to exhibit a high elasticity. This is, for example, possible in that the plastic shaft is made from a silicon material. A principal problem in long-term applications, namely mucous congestion, can in this fashion be successfully counteracted. For a drop of mucous, the gravitational attraction is proportional to the square of the gas-flow velocity. If one of the known stents is introduced into the tumor stenosis in order to widen the lumen, the flow velocity is locally reduced to a minimum here since the surface to be streamed through becomes too large and secretions collect in the stent. With the tracheal stent in accordance with the invention it is possible to achieve high gas-flow velocities in that, in the event of coughing, the cross-sectional area in the highly-elastic dorsal region is reduced. The inventive tracheal stent can dynamically propagate the coughin
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Freitag Lutz
Schmitt Klaus
Singvogel Armin
Snow Bruce E.
Vigil Thomas R.
Willse David H.
Willy Rusch AG
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