The disclosure relates to patient breathing tubes and more closely to sample taking carried out in connection with the use of the patient breathing tube.
During patient care for example in hospitals the amount of tubes, cables and wires used for example in treatment and control steps has caused different problems for decades. Said problems can make work of the doctors and nurse very difficult and can even lead to dangerous situations.
Reducing the amount of tubes, cables and wires going to and from the patient in the OR/ICU would allow more free working space for the doctors and nurses and reduce risk of confusion and unintentional disconnections. Obvious solutions aiming towards this goal are e.g. co-axial tube arrangements or the Limb-o tube where an inner wall creates two separated airflow channels. Logical next step is to insert other related tubes inside the breathing tubes, e.g. the gas sampling line. These inside each other placed tubes may however lead to other problems.
The structures described above are widely used in the field.
As described above the cables, pipes and wires and the structure thereof can cause different problems. As an example of the problems in patient care work problems occurring in interpretation of the information obtained from the gas monitor screen can be mentioned.
In order to correctly interpret the information on the gas monitor screen, the doctor needs to be aware of the gas sampling point's distance from patient. In conventional tubing this is trivial, when the doctor can easily see where the gas sampling tube is connected. If the gas sampling tube and also the gas sampling point point is placed inside the breathing tube, it is may be difficult to estimate gas sampling point's distance from patient. Typically, the closer to the patient the gas sample is taken the better. Also, the gas sampling point should be located so that it is not suctioning water, mucus etc. to the sensor instead of the actual breathing gases.
In some applications, so-called cardiogenic oscillation may cause confusing curves on the patient monitor if the gas sampling point is located too close to the branching unit, for example y-piece branch. Misinterpretation of these variations might lead to mistakes in patient care.
During the anesthesia machine “self-check” the patient end of the breathing tubing is typically connected to a conical stud to block the circuit. The patient connector shall not include any structures that might prevent this.
When the gas sampling line is not connected to a monitor, it must be sealed to prevent the breathing circuit from leaking. Small obstacles entering the sampling tube may affect the monitoring.
The above-mentioned shortcomings, disadvantages and problems are addressed herein which will be understood by reading and understood by reading the following specification.
In one embodiment arrangement in a patient breathing tube having a patient end and a ventilator end, the arrangement comprises a sampling conduit having a sampling tip provided at a pre-determined point of the patient end to define a sampling point. The arrangement further comprises a support structure locating the sampling tip of the sampling conduit apart from the inner surface of the patient breathing tube.
In another embodiment in a patient breathing tube having a patient end and a ventilator end, the patient breathing tube comprises a sampling conduit having a sampling tip provided at a pre-determined point of the patient end to define a sampling point. The patient breathing tube further comprises a support structure locating the sampling tip of the sampling conduit apart from the inner surface of the patient breathing tube.
Reference number 4 shows a branching unit, for example a Y-piece. Reference number 5 shows an intubation tube. Reference number 6 shows a filter and reference number 7 shows an elbow pipe. Reference number 8 shows a flow meter and reference number 9 shows a gas analyzer. Reference number 10 shows flow meter pipes and reference number 11 shows a patient internal gas sampling conduit.
The matter described above are known to a person skilled in the art and therefore said matters are not discussed in detail here.
In other words the embodiment of
In the embodiment shown the support structure is located into the connector piece of the patient breathing tube. Said embodiment is however not the only possibility but the support structure may also be an integral part of the patient breathing tube for example.
In the embodiment shown in
In the embodiment shown the sampling conduit is a patient internal gas sampling tube. The term sampling conduit must however be interpreted here widely, i.e. said sampling conduit may be pressure conduit or signal wire for example.
As told above in the embodiment shown in
The additional components discussed above may include for example a filter 6 and an elbow pipe 7.
In case the breathing tubing setup includes additional components, such as filters or elbows, the gas sampling tip can be brought even closer to the patient with special patient end filter and elbow structure. These components have an extension structure for the gas sampling tip 13 fixed on their centerline. These components connected to the coaxial patient tubing with integrated sampling line and tip allow the gas sampling point to be located in the same or better position than in case of conventional separate sampling line.
Using the elbow part 7 shown in
The written description uses examples to disclose the invention, including the best mode, and also to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the invention, including making using any devices or systems and performing any incorporated methods. The patentable scope of the invention is defined by the claims, and may include other examples that occur to those skilled in the art. Such other examples are intended to be within the scope of the claims if they have structural elements that do not differ from the literal language of the claims, or if they include equivalent structural elements with insubstantial differences from the literal languages of the claims.