Dual-filtered rotary isolation valve for resusciation

• US 5,575,279 A
• Filed: 01/02/1996
• Issued: 11/19/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 01/02/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Emergency Filtration Products Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Emergency Filtration Products Incorporated
• Inventors: Beplate, Douglas K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lewis, Aaron J.
• Application Number:
  US08/587,805
• Time in Patent Office: 322 Days
• Field of Search: 128/202.28, 128/202.29, 128/203.11
• US Class Current: 128/203.11
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 16/0048 Mouth-to-mouth respiration teaching or training models G09B23/288
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 16/1065 in the expiratory path
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 16/107 in the inspiratory path
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/7536 allowing gas passage, but preventing liquid passage, e.g. liquophobic, hydrophobic, water-repellent membranes

Abstract

An isolation valve for the resuscitation of patients which has an upper housing and a lower housing that snap together, rotate with respect to one another, and utilize a flexible diaphragm which extends into the small space between the upper housing and the lower housing to assure the establishment of an air-tight seal between the upper housing and the lower housing. The upper housing begins with an upper tube that expands outward to create an upper chamber segment. The lower housing has a lower chamber segment, the wall of which lower chamber segment establishing the snap-fit with the wall of the upper chamber segment. The lower chamber segment is formed by the outward expansion of a lower tube. Breath exhaled by a care provider proceeds along the upper tube to the upper chamber segment where it must pass through an upper filter segment, a lower filter segment, and a space between the two that provides a volume to retain any moisture which evades the filter segments. The exhaled breath from the care provider then passes through a check valve that precludes exhaled breath from the patient from traveling to the care provider and then into the lower tube. Breath exhaled by the patient is exhausted to the atmosphere through one or more apertures in the bottom of the lower chamber segment after having passed through an exhalation filter.

Claims

1. A dual-filtered rotary isolation valve for resuscitation of patients, which comprises:

an upper housing having an upper tube containing a bore formed by a surrounding upper tube wall, the first end of which upper tube may either be placed directly into a care provider'"'"'s mouth or be connected to a mouthpiece to be placed into the mouth of the care provider, the second end of which upper tube expands outward to create a top of an upper chamber segment and then returns to its original direction to from a wall of an upper chamber segment having a circular cross section concentrically located with respect to the cross section of the upper tube, the cross section of said upper tube also being circular, and the wall of the upper chamber segment protruding outward at a location between the top of the upper chamber segment and the bottom of the wall of the upper chamber to create annular ridge;

a lower housing having a lower tube with a containing a bore formed by a surrounding lower tube wall, the first end of which lower tube may either be placed directly into the patient'"'"'s mouth or be connected to a mask to be placed around the nose and mouth of the patient or be attached to a mouthpiece to be inserted into the mouth of the patient, the second end of which lower tube expands outward to create a bottom of a lower chamber segment and then returns to its original direction to form a wall of a lower chamber segment having a circular cross section concentrically located with respect to the cross section of the lower tube, the cross section of said lower tube also being circular, the wall of the lower chamber segment bulging outward to create an annular channel at a location between the bottom of the lower chamber segment and the top of the wall of the lower chamber segment so aligned with the annular ridge in the wall of the upper chamber segment that the lower chamber segment can be snap-fit onto the upper chamber segment, the inner diameter of the wall of the lower chamber segment being slightly greater than the outer diameter of the wall of the upper chamber segment to permit the lower chamber argment to rotate with respect to the upper chamber segment, the inner diameter of the annular channel being slightly greater than the outer diameter of the annular ridge but not so much greater that the lower chamber segment could slip from the upper chamber segment once the lower chamber segment and the upper chamber segment have been snap-fit together, one or more apertures existing in the bottom of the lower chamber segment, and an annular step formed at the junction of the bottom of the lower chamber segment and the wall of the lower chamber segment;

an exhalation filter placed on the bottom of the lower chamber segment, which exhalation filter contains an aperture that is approximately aligned with the bore of the lower tube;

a flexible diaphragm having a check valve near the center of said flexible diaphragm, having a support which rests on the exhalation filter adjacent to the support but covering only the outer edge of the exhalation filter so that the majority of the surface of the exhalation filter that is opposite to the bottom of the lower chamber segment is adjacent a passage which communicates with the bore of the lower tube, and having an outer edge that extends into the space between the wall of the lower chamber segment and the wall of the upper chamber segment with the bottom of the wall of the upper chamber segment resting on the diaphragm to create an air-tight seal between the upper chamber segment and the lower chamber segment; and

a transmission filter fills the upper chamber segment and is adjacent to the diaphragm.

2. The dual-filtered rotary isolation valve for resuscitation of patients as recited in claim 1, wherein:

the transmission filter has an upper filter segment and a lower filter segment, the upper filter segment being adjacent to the top of the upper chamber segment and the lower filter segment being adjacent to the diaphragm, with an annular spacer separating the upper filter segment from the lower filter segment and thereby creating an air space.

3. The dual-filtered rotary isolation valve for resuscitation of patients as recited in claim 2, wherein:

the upper filter segment is hydrophobic.

4. The dual-filtered rotary isolation valve for resuscitation of patients as recited in claim 3, wherein:

the lower filter segment is hydrophilic.

5. The dual-filtered rotary isolation valve for resuscitation of patients as recited in claim 4, wherein:

the exhalation filter is hydrophobic.

6. The dual-filtered rotary isolation valve for resuscitation of patients as recited in claim 5, further comprising:

two thin bands placed parallel to one another across the second end of the upper tube and connected to the tube wall of the upper tube.

7. The dual-filtered rotary isolation valve for resuscitation of patients as recited in claim 1, wherein:

the check valve is a duck-bill valve, the valve lips of which duck-bill valve axially extend into the bore of the lower tube.

8. The dual-filtered rotary isolation valve for resuscitation of patients as recited in claim 7, wherein:

the transmission filter has an upper filter segment and a lower filter segment, the upper filter segment being adjacent to the top of the upper chamber segment and the lower filter segment being adjacent to the diaphragm, with an annular spacer separating the upper filter segment from the lower filter segment and thereby creating an air space.

9. The dual-filtered rotary isolation valve for resuscitation of patients as recited in claim 8, wherein:

the upper filter segment is hydrophobic.

10. The dual-filtered rotary isolation valve for resuscitation of patients as recited in claim 9, wherein:

the lower filter segment is hydrophilic.

11. The dual-filtered rotary isolation valve for resuscitation of patients as recited in claim 10, wherein:

the exhalation filter is hydrophobic.

12. The dual-filtered rotary isolation valve for resuscitation of patients as recited in claim 11, further comprising:

two thin bands placed parallel to one another across the second end of the upper tube and connected to the tube wall of the upper tube.