Electrosurgical grounding cable assembly

• US 3,895,635 A
• Filed: 06/20/1973
• Issued: 07/22/1975
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/1973
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: NDM Acquisition Corporation
• Original Assignee: Charles T. Patrick Jr, George Junior Justus, Lowell C. Miller
• Inventors: Justus, George Junior, Miller, Lowell C., Patrick, Charles T. Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kamm, William E.
• Application Number:
  US05/371,773
• Time in Patent Office: 762 Days
• Field of Search: 128/2.6E,2.1E,303.13,303.14,303.17,303.18,404,416,417,418,415,414,413,412 339/39,42,65,79,101,273F,274
• US Class Current: 606/32
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 18/16 Indifferent or passive electrodes for grounding
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/273 Connection of cords, cables or leads to electrodes
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/276 Protection against electrode failure
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/28 for electrocardiography [ECG]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/303 Patient cord assembly, e.g. cable harness
• CPC Class Codes: A61N 1/04 Electrodes electrosurgical electrodes A61B18/14
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 439/909 Medical use or attached to human body

Abstract

A connector for the grounding cable of an electrosurgical generator (E.G.) has a non-conductive body carrying an electrical contact plate against which a stud of an indifferent electrode in an electrosurgical grounding pad is locked by a non-conductive cam lever pivotally mounted on the body portion. The body has one end of the grounding cable located therein in attachment to the contact plate with the other end of the grounding cable having a terminal plug for insertion in a socket of the electrosurgical generator. As an adjuvant feature, the body has a receptacle engaged with the contact plate and adapted to receive a pin jack on a grounding wire for interconnecting a monitoring patient cable ground circuit of an electrocardiograph machine (E.K.G.) and the electrosurgical patient grounding cable.

Claims

1. For use with electrosurgical equipment including (a) an electrosurgical generator for generating high frequency electric current, (b) an active electrode electrically connected to said generator and used to cut tissue and coagulate blood, and (c) an indifferent electrode for attaching to a patient an electrical ground means, a grounding assembly suitable for said electrosurgical equipment and comprising, in combination, a connector and a cable, said connector, in turn, comprising a body provided with a slot defining an open trackway along a face of said body for receiving, on one end of the trackway, a conductor electrically coupled to said indifferent electrode, and means at the opposite end of the trackway for terminating the trackway while still retaining said conductor on said trackway, an electrically conductive contact means, carried by said body, electrically coupled with said conductor on said trackway, while said conductor is in said trackway, and with one end of the cable, the opposite end of said cable being electrically coupled to ground, and locking means carried by said connector and positionable in said trackway to lock said conductor in electrical contact with said contact means.

2. The invention of claim 1, wherein said connector has a non-conductive solid body.

3. The invention of claim 2, wherein said conductor electrically coupled to said indifferent electrode is a projecting stud over which the trackway slides and said stud is formed with a groove in which the trackway moves.

4. The invention of claim 3 wherein said contact means includes a resilient tab of conductive material arranged generally perpendicularly of the trackway and providing said means at one end of the trackway to terminate travel of the latter along the conductor.

5. The invention of claim 4, wherein said locking means includes a lever formed from non-conductive material, a pivot pin arranged transversely of the trackway adjacent the open end thereof, said lever having one end mounted on the pivot pin for swinging movement about an axis normal to the trackway and said lever having an opposing free end portion having a cam surface releasably engaging the stud in clamping relation with the tab.

6. The invention of claim 5, wherein said connector body has opposing top and bottom faces, said opening of said trackway being in said bottom face of said body, said contact means including a plate portion fixed on the bottom face and from which the tab upstands in the trackway, said connector body having opposing ends and the trackway being elongated and passing through one end of the body and said pivot pin being disposed and passing through one end of the body and said pivot being disposed at said end.

7. The invention of claim 6, wherein said plate portion is longitudinally split to effect two plate sections and the resilient contact tab upstands in the trackway from one of said sections and arrests the inward movement of the stud along the trackway.

8. The invention of claim 7 wherein said top face of the connector body has a depression of a size and shape approximating the size and shape of the lever which is seated therein, said depression, in turn, having an opening in the bottom thereof in communication with said trackway having said stud upstanding therein, the opening being of a size and shape approximating the size and shape of the cam surface releasably engaging the stud in clamping relation with said tab, and said pivot pin is in a plane above the plane of the bottom of the depression with said lever being disposed below the pivot pin plane when it is seated in the depression so that it is below its pivot axis and is locked in place in the depression.

9. The invention of claim 8 wherein said locking lever has an angular lip on its free end, said lip projecting upwardly from the lever in its seated and locked position and defining a finger pIece.

10. The invention of claim 9 wherein said connector body is transparent.

11. The invention of claim 9 wherein said cable whose proximal end is attached to said connector comprises lead wire encased in transparent plastic for visual inspection of the lead wire, and, at the distal end of the cable, a transparent terminal plug for visual inspection of the contact means by which the distal end of said lead wire is attached.

12. The invention of claim 1 wherein said electrosurgical equipment includes an electrocardiograph machine having a monitoring patient cable ground circuit and said connector is provided with a receptacle in contact with the contact means, a grounding wire having opposing jack plug ends, one of said jack plug ends being attached to the ground jack of the electrocardiograph machine and the other jack plug end being insertable in the receptacle in the connector body.

13. A cable grounding assembly for use with an electrosurgical grounding pad having a patient contacting inner surface and an outer surface from which a stud projects having an annular groove, said assembly comprising a connector having a solid non-conductive body portion having opposing top and bottom faces, and formed in the bottom of said faces is a slot-like, elongated trackway which slides over the stud and in the groove, said trackway having an outer end and an at least partially closed inner end, an electrically conductive contact plate fixed to the bottom face and having an integral inherently resilient tab projecting therefrom and disposed in the trackway at the inner end thereof and which bears against the stud, a locking lever of non-conductive material pivotally mounted on the connector body adjacent the outer end and means for locking the lever in clamping relation with the stud so as to lock the latter against the contact tab to prevent motions transverse to and parallel to said trackway and a grounding cable extending from the connector body in contact with the contact plate and having a distal end provided with a terminal plug adapted to be inserted in an electrosurgical unit.

14. The invention of claim 13 wherein said locking means includes said top face of the connector body being formed with a depression of a size and shape to receive the lever and a pivot pin for the lever arranged in the connector body transversely of the trackway at the open end thereof and disposed in a plane above the bottom of the depression so that the major part of the lever is below the pivot axis when seated in the depression.

15. The invention of claim 14, wherein said lever has a free end provided with an angular lip that upstands therefrom when the lever is seated in the depression and extends above the top face of the connector body.

16. The invention of claim 13, wherein said connector body, grounding cable and terminal plug are transparent.

17. The invention of claim 16 wherein the connector body, the cable and the terminal are formed from transparent polymeric materials.

18. A grounding assembly suitable for use with electrosurgical equipment and comprising, in combination, a connector and a cable, said connector, in turn, comprising a body provided with a slot defining an open trackway along a face of said body for receiving on one open end of the trackway, a conductor and means at the opposite end of the trackway for terminating the trackway while still retaining said conductor on said trackway, an electrically conductive contact means, carried by said body, electrically coupled with said conductor on said trackway, while said conductor is in said trackway, and with one end of the cable, the opposite end of said cable being electrically coupled to ground, and locking means carried by said connector and positionable in said trackway to lock said conductor in electrical contact with said contact means.

19. The invention of claim 18 wherein said conductor is a stud having an annular groove in which the trackway slides.

20. The invention of claim 18 wherein said connector body has a bottom face and a top face and said contact means further includes a thin plate fixedly superimposed on the bottom face and having a trackway complementing the body trackway but of slightly less width than the body trackway so that the bounding walls of the contact plate trackway engage the conductor.

21. The invention of claim 18 wherein said connector body has a top face formed with a surface cavity and said locking means includes a locking lever, a pivot pin mounted in the connector body adjacent the open end of the trackway and arranged transversely thereof, said lever having one end pivoted on said pin and having a cam means on its other end releasably engaging the conductor, with said lever being sealed in the cavity and bearing against the conductor.