Method and devices for its employ for reducing disease-transfer risks

• US 20130237790A1
• Filed: 08/31/2012
• Published: 09/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Carroll E. Weller, Edward Allen Riess
• Original Assignee: Edward Allen Riess
• Inventors: Weller, Carroll E., RIESS, EDWARD ALLEN
• Granted Patent: US 8,750,956 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/373
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2505/05 Surgical care
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/247 Hygienic covers, i.e. for covering the sensor or apparatus during use
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/24 Detecting, measuring or recording bioelectric or biomagnetic signals of the body or parts thereof
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/291 for electroencephalography [EEG]

Abstract

The present invention is a method and apparatus, in several embodiments, for providing protection in workplaces in which workers can be exposed to diseases and other contaminations from skin abrasions or punctures by contaminated objects. In its primary application it provides such protection at skin surfaces of healthcare patients into which needle electrodes have been inserted and, under certain conditions, can emerge. This bio-hazard occurs most often during patient-positioning when patients are unconscious due to anesthesia or other reasons. Protection is supplied in the first embodiment by a puncture-resistant head-covering; in the second by a pad that covers and secures needle electrodes, and; in a third as a tissue-penetrating, less hazardous stick-on electrode. The latter two embodiments have pressure-sensitive-adhesive coatings for adhesion to a patient'"'"'s skin.

Claims

1. A method for reducing the risk of acquiring disease through skin-scrape or skin-puncture by contaminated objects including, most particularly, medical-grade needles, including needle electrodes, by means of a puncture-resistant covering that can be applied and held to surfaces on or from which such objects exist or may protrude.

2. A device for reducing the risk of acquiring disease through skin-scrape or skin-puncture by contaminated objects including, most particularly, medical-grade needles, including needle electrodes, by virtue of its ability to provide a generally stable puncture-resistant covering for contaminated objects or surfaces from which contaminated objects may protrude.

3. The device of claim 2 comprising:

A substantially thin, flexible, puncture-resistant material or set of materials generally having the size and shape of a hospital patient'"'"'s bouffant head-covering;

A means enabling said head-covering to be generally kept-in-place on a patient'"'"'s head that preferably involves an embedded or attached elastic material or a string, a cord, or a strap.

4. The device of claim 2 having a shape suggestive of a patch having a front surface and a rear surface and having thickness of less than one-quarter inch and having a means, enabling its attachment to any generally dry surface, that preferably involves a pressure-sensitive adhesive existing on at least a portion of its rear surface which simultaneously can provide a securing means to electrode leads (or wires) that it may cover during its use.

5. The device of claim 2 wherein at least one region of the covering presents as a tab that is devoid of an adhesive coating to facilitate its placement and/or removal.

6. The device of claim 2 wherein, during its use, its visible surface contains one or more words and/or designs that serve to:

Identify or express caution regarding the existence of the potentially dangerous sharp object which it covers, and/or;

Communicate a preferred orientation for its application and/or removal where, for example, a depiction of a needle electrode would be preferably oriented in a direction such that its sharp end would point toward a region most likely to be grasped for its removal ensuring that the extraction of a covered needle would cause the least trauma to the skin in which it was inserted, and/or;

Draw attention to its presence to help ensure that, in the process of removing all electrodes which such coverings, the chance of its being “

missed”

would be reduced.

7. The device of claim 2 wherein it is manufactured and supplied along with a multiplicity of identical devices in a sheet-like array in much the same form that EKG stick-on electrodes and other such electrodes are purchasable.

8. The device of claim 2 wherein it can be manufactured and supplied along with a multiplicity of identical devices disposed in a rolled array resembling a roll of tape that is additionally amenable to use with a tape-dispenser-like dispensing apparatus that enables rapid peel-off from a backing material, or if so disposed but with a continuous length of backing material that serves as the carrier for the pressure-sensitive-adhesive, can be sectioned to yield individual identical devices through tearing the backing material at locations that are perforated.

9. The device of claim 2 wherein it has the form of a tape-roll-like item comprised of a continuous length of puncture-resistant material, partially- or totally-pressure-sensitive-adhesive-backed (i.e., one-side-coated), from which an arbitrary length can be separated from the remaining portion of the roll, preferably when employed within a dispensing apparatus equipped with a means for cutting-off desired lengths, and even more preferably within a so-equipped dispensing apparatus that is further equipped with a device which, preferably during or about the time of the cutting action, applies a piece of a thin sheet-material to a section of the region coated with the pressure-sensitive adhesive at a location that could serve as a convenient non-sticky tab which can be grasped to facilitate the eventual removal of the desired length of puncture-resistant material.

10. The device of claim 3 wherein the head-covering has an electrically conductive surface.

11. The device of claim 3 wherein the head-covering has an electrically conductive surface which is insulated in a way that prevents the patient from having electrical contact with it and which may be electrically connected to electrical earth ground or an instrument ground.

12. An electrode which has at least one or an array of, thin, sharp-tipped needle(s) or other skin-piercing component(s), electrically connected to an electrode lead or a snap-electrode button-connector (such as exists on a standard EKG stick-on electrode) and adhesively or otherwise attached to a substrate which, on the side to which the skin-piercing component(s) attach, is coated with a pressure-sensitive-adhesive preferably over the entire region around the skin-piercing component(s) to enable secure attachment to a patient'"'"'s skin.

13. The device of claim 12 wherein the support and electrical connection of said skin-piercing component(s) is through a strap that can flex and allow the general position of the piercing component(s) to remain unchanged when the body of the device is flexed and/or lifted a set distance;

one-half-inch, for example.