1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a catheter apparatus, especially to a catheter apparatus and an operating method thereof
2. Description of the prior art
In general, the catheter apparatus is used to discharge the urine from the bladder of the patient. Its operating theorem is to insert the sterile catheter into the bladder of the patient and the balloon is swelled and disposed in the bladder without departing from the bladder. And then, the operator will manually operate the aspirator pump, so that the urine in the bladder of the patient can be smoothly discharged to the urine collector out of the body of the patient to achieve the effects of keeping clear and dry, preventing wound infection or bladder decompression before and after surgery.
However, the current catheter apparatus still has many drawbacks in practical applications. For example, when the catheter apparatus is inserted into the bladder of the patient, the operator fails to immediately know whether the catheter apparatus is suitably inserted into the correct position in the bladder of the patient. Therefore, the operator may swell the balloon and start the aspirator pump too early when the catheter apparatus has not been inserted to the correct position of the bladder. This will make the patient uncomfortable and the urine discharging effect will be poor. In addition, when the conventional catheter apparatus is used to discharge urine from the bladder of the patient, the patient may have different postures such as the standing posture, the sitting posture or the lying posture, but the conventional catheter apparatus fails to correspondingly adjust the size of the swelled balloon in the bladder according to the different postures of the patient. Even the size of the swelled balloon in the bladder is fixed, the patient will still feel painful under some postures.
Therefore, the invention provides a catheter apparatus and an operating method thereof to overcome the problems occurred in the above-mentioned prior arts.
A preferred embodiment of the invention is a catheter apparatus. In this embodiment, the catheter apparatus is used for discharging a urine from a bladder. The catheter apparatus includes a replaceable module, a main body portion and a sensing module. The main body portion includes a tube, a urine guide opening and an elastic unit. The replaceable module includes a control unit. A first terminal of the tube is coupled to the replaceable module and a second terminal of the tube is inserted into the bladder. The urine guide opening is disposed at the second terminal of the tube and used to guide urine into the tube when the second terminal of the tube is inserted into the bladder. The elastic unit is disposed at the second terminal of the tube and coupled to the control unit. The sensing module is coupled to the control unit and used to sense whether the second terminal of the tube is inserted to the correct position in the bladder and transmit the sensing result to the control unit.
In an embodiment, if the sensing result is that the second terminal of the tube is inserted to the correct position in the bladder, the control unit automatically controls the elastic unit to swell in the bladder, so that the elastic unit can be disposed in the bladder without departing from the bladder.
In an embodiment, the replaceable module further includes an indicating unit, coupled to the control unit, for indicating the sensing result. the indicating unit is a display monitor, a speaker, a light emitting unit, a hollow tube including an indicator or an inflatable elastomer used to indicate the sensing result by displaying a text, a symbol or an image, making a sound, emitting a light, the high position or low position of the indicator in the hollow tube or whether the elastomer is inflated.
In an embodiment, the elastic unit and the indicating unit are disposed in the same air flow passage and an air flows through the elastic unit at first, when the second terminal of the tube is not inserted into the correct position in the bladder, the elastic unit fails to swell and the air flowing through the elastic unit flows to the indicating unit to move the indicator of the indicating unit from a first position to a second position; when the second terminal of the tube is inserted into the correct position in the bladder, the elastic unit can swell and the air flowing through the elastic unit flows into the elastic unit instead of flowing to the indicating unit to move the indicator of the indicating unit to the first position.
In an embodiment, the replaceable module further includes a mode selecting unit, coupled to the control unit and used by a user to select a using mode, and the control unit correspondingly adjusts a size of the swelled elastic unit in the bladder according to the using mode.
In an embodiment, the elastic unit and the indicating unit are disposed in the same air flow passage and an air flows through the elastic unit at first, when the second terminal of the tube is not inserted into the correct position in the bladder, the elastic unit fails to swell and the air flowing through the elastic unit flows to the indicating unit to move the indicator of the indicating unit from a first position to a second position; when the second terminal of the tube is inserted into the correct position in the bladder, the elastic unit can swell and the air flowing through the elastic unit flows into the elastic unit instead of flowing to the indicating unit to move the indicator of the indicating unit to the first position.
In an embodiment, the replaceable module further includes a mode selecting unit, coupled to the control unit and used by a user to select a using mode, and the control unit correspondingly adjusts a size of the swelled elastic unit in the bladder according to the using mode.
Another embodiment of the invention is a catheter apparatus operating method. In this embodiment, the catheter apparatus operating method is used for operating a catheter apparatus to discharge a urine from a bladder. The catheter apparatus includes a replaceable module, a main body portion and a sensing module. The replaceable module includes a control unit, the main body portion including a tube, a urine guide opening and an elastic unit. The catheter apparatus operating method includes steps of: (a) coupling a first terminal of the tube to the replaceable module and inserting a second terminal of the tube into the bladder; (b) disposing the urine guide opening and the elastic unit at the second terminal and the first terminal of the tube respectively; and (c) using the sensing module to sense whether the second terminal of the tube is inserted to a correct position in the bladder and transmitting a sensing result to the control unit.
Compared to the prior art, the catheter apparatus and operating method thereof have the following advantages of:
(1) When the catheter apparatus is operated in the manual mode, the operator can immediately know whether the catheter is inserted to the correct position in the bladder of the patient according to the sensing result of the sensing unit indicated by the indicating unit; therefore, the operator can properly operate the catheter apparatus to reduce the discomfort of the patient.
(2) When the catheter apparatus is operated in the automatic mode, the catheter apparatus can automatically perform the procedures of swelling the balloon in the bladder of the patient and starting the pump directly according to the sensing result of the sensing unit; therefore, the burden of the operator can be largely reduced.
(3) The catheter apparatus can correspondingly adjust the size of the swelled balloon in the bladder of the patient according to different modes; therefore, the catheter apparatus can be adjusted with different postures of the patient and the patient can be more comfortable during catheterization.
The advantage and spirit of the invention may be understood by the following detailed descriptions together with the appended drawings.
An embodiment of the invention is a catheter apparatus. In this embodiment, the catheter apparatus is used to insert into the bladder to discharge urine from the bladder.
Please refer to
In this embodiment, the tube 120 is a hollow tube having a first terminal and a second terminal, wherein the first terminal of the tube 120 is coupled to the replaceable module 10 and the second terminal of the tube 120 is used to insert into the bladder. The elastic unit 124 is disposed at the second terminal of the tube 120 and coupled to the control unit 100. In fact, the elastic unit 124 can be an inflatable elastomer, such as a balloon, but not limited to this.
The sensing module 14 is used to sense whether the second terminal of the tube 120 is inserted to the correct position in the bladder and transmit the sensing result to the control unit 100. In fact, the sensing module 14 can sense through an optical method, an electronic method or mechanical method to obtain the sensing result, but not limited to this.
The position detecting module 18 is used to detect the position of the patient and transmit the detecting result to the control unit 100, and then the control unit 100 will determine the posture of the patient according to the detecting result and further adjust the operating mode of the catheter apparatus 1. In fact, the position detecting module 18 can be worn on the body of the patient with a wearing device and the position detecting module 18 can transmit the detecting result to the control unit 100 through wireless transmitting method or wired transmitting method, but not limited to this.
Please refer to
If the sensing result the control unit 100 receives from the sensing module 14 is that the second terminal of the tube 120 has not inserted to the correct position in the bladder BL yet, the elastic unit 124 will not swell, as shown in
In this embodiment, the mode selecting unit 104 of the replaceable module 10 is used by the user to select a using mode. For example, as shown in
In addition, the mode menu MS can include options such as the automatic mode and the manual mode. When the user selects the automatic mode through the mode selecting unit 104, the catheter apparatus 1 will be operated in the automatic mode; when the user switches to the manual mode through the mode selecting unit 104, the catheter apparatus 1 will be changed to be controlled by the user. Therefore, the automatic mode and the manual mode can be switched based on practical needs of the user.
When the catheter apparatus 1 is used to discharge urine from the bladder of the patient, the patient can have different postures such as the standing posture, the sitting posture or the lying posture; therefore, when the catheter apparatus 1 is operated in the manual mode, the control unit 100 of the invention will correspondingly adjust the size of the swelled elastic unit 124 in the bladder according to the different modes (namely the different postures of the patient) selected by the patient through the mode selecting unit 104 to avoid pain and discomfort to the patient; when the catheter apparatus 1 is operated in the automatic mode, the control unit 100 of the invention can automatically determine the posture of the patient (e.g., the standing posture, the sitting posture or the lying posture) according to the detecting result of the patient's position detected by the position detecting module 18, and then the control unit 100 can corresponding change the operating mode of the catheter apparatus 1 (e.g., the standing posture mode, the sitting posture mode or the lying posture mode) to adjust the size of the swelled elastic unit 124 in the bladder to avoid pain and discomfort to the patient.
For example,
When the elastic unit 124 is swelled in the bladder BL and the second terminal of the tube 120 is fixed in the bladder BL, the urine guide opening 122 disposed at the second terminal of the tube 120 can start to guide the urine from the bladder BL to the tube 120, so that the urine can be discharged out of the bladder BL through the tube 120.
When the urine flows from the second terminal of the tube 120 to the first terminal of the tube 120, the urine discharging module 16 disposed at the first terminal of the tube 120 can start to discharge the urine out of the tube 120. In fact, the urine discharging module 16 can have a function of pump to help the discharging of the urine from the bladder BL to a urine collector, but not limited to this. In addition, the urine discharging module 16 can also have a function of urine analysis to analyze the urine before the urine is discharged to the urine collector, so that it can determine whether the data and indexes of the urine are normal according to the analyzing result.
In this embodiment, the indicating unit 102 of the replaceable module 10 is used to indicate the sensing result to let the user know the sensing result. In fact, the form of the indicating unit 102 has no limitations. The indicating unit 102 can be a display monitor, a speaker, a light emitting unit, a hollow tube including an indicator or an inflatable elastomer used to indicate the sensing result by displaying a text, a symbol or an image, making a sound, emitting a light, the high position or low position of the indicator in the hollow tube or whether the elastomer is inflated.
For example, it is assumed that the indicating unit 102 is the display monitor indicating the sensing result by displaying a symbol. When the indicating unit 102 displays “X”, it represents that the second terminal of the tube 120 has not inserted to the correct position in the bladder BL yet, as shown in
It should be noticed that the indicating unit 102 and the mode selecting unit 104 of the replaceable module 10 can be integrated together in some embodiments. For example, if the indicating unit 102 displays text, symbol and image to indicate the sensing result and the mode selecting unit 104 displays the mode menu for the user to select a using mode, then the indicating unit 102 and the mode selecting unit 104 can be integrated in the same touch monitor disposed on the replaceable module 10 to reduce the volume.
In another embodiment, it is assumed that the indicating unit 102 is a transparent hollow tube including an indicator K using the high position or low position of the indicator K in the hollow tube to indicate the sensing result. When the indicator K of the indicating unit 102 is located in a higher second position, it represents that the second terminal of the tube 120 has not inserted to the correct position in the bladder BL yet, as shown in
In another embodiment, it is assumed that the indicating unit 102 is an inflatable elastomer indicating the sensing result by whether the elastomer is inflated by air flow. When the elastomer is inflated by air flow, it represents that the second terminal of the tube 120 has not inserted to the correct position in the bladder BL yet, as shown in
In another embodiment, it is assumed that the indicating unit 102 is a speaker making a sound to indicate the sensing result. The indicating unit 102 can make the sound of music to represent that the second terminal of the tube 120 has been inserted to the correct position in the bladder BL and the indicating unit 102 can make rapid warning sound to represent that the second terminal of the tube 120 has not inserted to the correct position in the bladder BL yet.
In another embodiment, it is assumed that the indicating unit 102 is a light emitting unit emitting a light to indicate the sensing result. The indicating unit 102 can emit a green light to represent that the second terminal of the tube 120 has been inserted to the correct position in the bladder BL and the indicating unit 102 can emit a red light to represent that the second terminal of the tube 120 has not inserted to the correct position in the bladder BL yet.
Then, please refer to
Taking
Another embodiment of the invention is a catheter apparatus operating method. In this embodiment, the catheter apparatus operating method is used for operating a catheter apparatus to discharge a urine from a bladder. The catheter apparatus includes a replaceable module, a main body portion and a sensing module. The replaceable module includes a control unit, the main body portion including a tube, a urine guide opening and an elastic unit, but not limited to this.
Please refer to
Step S10: coupling a first terminal of the tube to the replaceable module and inserting a second terminal of the tube into the bladder;
Step S12: disposing the urine guide opening and the elastic unit at the second terminal and the first terminal of the tube respectively; and
Step S14: using the sensing module to sense whether the second terminal of the tube is inserted to a correct position in the bladder and transmitting a sensing result to the control unit.
In practical applications, the sensing module can use an optical method, an electronic method or a mechanical method to perform the step S14 to sense, but not limited to this. In addition, the control unit can be switched to operate in the manual mode.
It should be noticed that if the sensing result of the sensing module is that the second terminal of the tube has been inserted into the correct position in the bladder, then the control unit will automatically control the elastic unit to swell in the bladder, so that the swelled elastic unit can be disposed in the bladder without departing from the bladder. In addition, the replaceable module can further include a mode selecting unit used by the user to select a using mode and then the control unit correspondingly adjusts a size of the swelled elastic unit in the bladder according to the using mode, but not limited to this.
In an embodiment, the replaceable module can further include an indicating unit. The indicating unit is coupled to the control unit and used to indicate the sensing result. In fact, the indicating unit can indicate the sensing result through different ways, such as making a sound or emitting a light, but not limited to this.
Compared to the prior art, the catheter apparatus and operating method thereof have the following advantages of:
(1) When the catheter apparatus is operated in the manual mode, the operator can immediately know whether the catheter is inserted to the correct position in the bladder of the patient according to the sensing result of the sensing unit indicated by the indicating unit; therefore, the operator can properly operate the catheter apparatus to reduce the discomfort of the patient.
(2) When the catheter apparatus is operated in the automatic mode, the catheter apparatus can automatically perform the procedures of swelling the balloon in the bladder of the patient and starting the pump directly according to the sensing result of the sensing unit; therefore, the burden of the operator can be largely reduced.
(3) The catheter apparatus can correspondingly adjust the size of the swelled balloon in the bladder of the patient according to different modes; therefore, the catheter apparatus can be adjusted with different postures of the patient and the patient can be more comfortable during catheterization.
With the example and explanations above, the features and spirits of the invention will be hopefully well described. Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device may be made while retaining the teaching of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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20050192652 | Cioanta | Sep 2005 | A1 |
20120259216 | Gerrans | Oct 2012 | A1 |
20140309550 | Iglesias | Oct 2014 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20170100562 A1 | Apr 2017 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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62238195 | Oct 2015 | US |