Positive pulse device

• US 4,315,506 A
• Filed: 10/14/1980
• Issued: 02/16/1982
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/1979
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Airco, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Airco, Inc.
• Inventors: Rick, Norman A., Kayser, John P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Michell, Robert W.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kruter, J. L.
• Application Number:
  US06/196,985
• Time in Patent Office: 490 Days
• Field of Search: 137/DIG. 8, 251/63, 417/146, 417/148, 417/137, 128/276-278, 128/297, 15/353
• US Class Current: 604/28
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 1/75 Intermittent or pulsating suction A61M1/63, A61M1/772 take precedence

Abstract

A device for use in vacuum suction systems for withdrawing fluids from a patient'"'"'s body cavity, such as the stomach, wherein the device includes a chamber that is located in the flow stream of such fluids between the patient and the source of vacuum. At predetermined intervals, the device forces a quantity of the withdrawn fluid from the chamber, back into the suction tubing leading to the patient such that some of the fluid previously removed from the body cavity is forced backward toward such cavity under a positive pressure to dislodge any obstructions that may have occurred in the tubing or at the end of such tubing. In the preferred embodiment, the device is effectively self-contained and needs no source of positive pressure or electricity for its operation and is readily and fully operable from present commercial intermittent suction systems without revamping or otherwise modifying existing systems.

Claims

1. A positive pulse device operable from a vacuum source and adapted to be located in a patient drainage line leading from a patient to the vacuum source, said device comprising an enclosed housing, a movable piston within said housing separating the interior of said housing into first and second chambers, said second chamber having an inlet for receiving fluids from the patient and an outlet in communication with the vacuum source, said first chamber adapted to be connectible to said source of vacuum, bias means on said piston exerting a force thereon in a direction toward said second chamber, said first chamber being dimensioned such that vacuum applied to said first chamber overcomes said bias means to hold said piston in a first position withdrawn toward said first chamber, said first chamber being adapted to selectively be placed at atmosphere pressure causing said bias means to force said piston to move to a second position collapsing said second chamber, whereby fluids from the patient collected in said second chamber are forced therefrom in a backward direction toward the patient.

2. A positive pulse device as defined in claim 1 wherein said piston is adapted to close said outlet of said second chamber.

3. A positive pulse device as defined in claim 2 wherein said second chamber outlet comprises an opening in said enclosed housing, and wherein said piston further comprises a nose adapted to align with and enter said opening when said piston initially moves toward said second position whereby said nose closes said opening.

4. A positive pulse device as defined in claim 2 where means are included to control the total movement of said piston between its first and second positions.

5. A positive pulse device for use in a vacuum line connecting a patient to a source of vacuum for removal of fluids from the patient, said device comprising a variable chamber through which at least a portion of said fluid passes from the patient toward the vacuum source, said variable chamber having an expanded condition and a contracted condition and having an inlet for receiving fluids from the patient and an outlet connected to the source of vacuum, said variable chamber having means to be connected to said source of vacuum to move said chamber to its expanded position, and bias means to move said chamber to its contracted position when said further connection to said source of vacuum is discontinued whereby a portion of said fluid contained within said chamber is forced from said chamber backwardly through said inlet toward said patient.

6. A method of returning a portion of fluid being withdrawn from a patient toward a vacuum source comprising the steps of:

(a) positioning an expandable-contractible chamber within the flow path of fluids being withdrawn from the patient;

(b) directing the flow of at least a portion of such fluids through said chamber;

(c) selectively applying a vacuum to said chamber to expand said chamber; and

(d) selectively terminating vacuum to said chamber to contract said chamber to force a portion of the fluid contained therein withdrawn from the patient in a direction backward toward the patient.