Saftey provisions for surgical tools and mri
First Claim
1. An apparatus for inhibiting surgical tools from being brought into proximity with an MRI scanner, the apparatus comprising:
- sensing means for sensing whether each of a plurality of surgical instruments has been positioned in a preselected location;
a means for determining whether all surgical instruments have been returned to their preselected locations and issuing a signal indicative thereof.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A subject on a pallet (22) undergoes a surgical procedure in the vicinity of an MR scanner using non-MRI compatible instruments (40) from a tray (42). The procedure may, for example, insert a catheter which is MRI compatible. After the procedure, the pallet (22) is transferred by a transfer gurney (26′) or a drive (122) and moved across a 5 Gauss line (32) and into an imaging region (30) of an MRI scanner (12). To be sure that none of the non-MRI compatible instruments crosses the 5 Gauss line (32), a circuit (50) senses whether all of the instruments have been repositioned at their preselected locations in the tray (42). The circuit (50) controls one of a light (60) which indicates whether or not it is safe to cross the 5 Gauss line, prevents brakes on the movable transport gantry (26) from being released, prevents a pallet manipulating mechanism (24) from transferring the pallet to the transport gantry, or prevents the transport gantry from being released from its docking position with the manipulating mechanism (24).
35 Citations
21 Claims
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1. An apparatus for inhibiting surgical tools from being brought into proximity with an MRI scanner, the apparatus comprising:
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sensing means for sensing whether each of a plurality of surgical instruments has been positioned in a preselected location;
a means for determining whether all surgical instruments have been returned to their preselected locations and issuing a signal indicative thereof. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method of inhibiting surgical tools from being brought into proximity with an MRI scanner, the method comprising:
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determining whether each of a set of medical instruments has been returned to a preselected location;
determining whether all of the medical instruments have been returned to the preselected location. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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Specification