Patent Application
20200375649
The present disclosure relates to a device and methods of rapid anesthesia or analgesia through rapid cooling using a thermoelectric element based on Peltier effect, which is in direct contact with mucosal skin or living tissue of an eye.
With the aging population and increasing number of patients with diabetes, vision threatening retinal diseases such as age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and diabetic vein occlusions are increasing rapidly. For the last decade, intravitreal injection therapy (IVT), the periodic injections of medication such as ranibizumab and aflibercept directly into the patient eyes, has been found to be more successful in treating the aforementioned vision threatening retinal diseases than laser therapy and vitreous replacement procedures, and become the standard of care in these patients. As a result, more than 90% of patients with age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and retinal vein occlusions are treated with IVTs, and according to the American Society of Retina Specialists, the number of IVTs is estimated to be over 6 million in 2016 in the United States alone and reach at least 10 million by 2020.
IVT is a painful and psychologically stressful procedure, and patients often demand maximal anesthesia before an injection. Retina specialists typically choose one among three anesthesia methods when such maximal anesthesia is required, cotton tipped applicators soaked with lidocaine, viscous anesthetic, or subconjunctival lidocaine injection. These methods require several minutes for the onset of maximal anesthesia, increasing the time required for patient preparation by several fold. While the method of eye drops of topical anesthetics is the most time-efficient method, the level of anesthesia is moderate and patients often complain of injection pain.
Both maximal and moderate anesthesia options rely on chemical anesthesia agents. Compared with anesthesiology in other areas, ophthalmic anesthesia requires several unique carefulness such as systemic diseases of the patient, systemic reaction by treated medicines and interaction between such medicines and anesthetic agent, which has significant effects even on the success of the ophthalmic surgery. In addition to the possible side effects, chemical anesthesia agents often result in adverse effects when applied to the eye surface such as eye dryness and soreness, which further lead to patient discomfort.
The rapidly increasing number of IVTs has resulted in severe strain in ophthalmic clinic work flow and long patient waiting time, forcing retina specialists to sacrifice patient experience for managing their busy clinics. The trade-offs between the quality and time efficiency of current ocular anesthesia methods as well as the several adverse effects and medical complications of ocular anesthetic agents indicate unmet needs for a non-invasive and time-efficient method for maximal anesthesia.
The present disclosure or teaching is contemplated to solve the problem in the conventional art, and thus an object of the present disclosure is to provide cooling device and method enabling precise manipulation thereof.
Another object of the present disclosure is to provide the cooling device and method preventing contamination or contagion through use thereof.
Still another object of present disclosure is to provide the cooling device and method allowing stable operation constantly with performing rapid anesthesia.
According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, a device for cooling a living tissue may comprises a body; a first end portion disposed in the body, the first end portion provided with a cooling medium configured to thermally coupled with a cooling tip to cool a target area; and a second end portion disposed in the body and formed opposite to the first end portion, wherein a center of mass portion of the device is located within the first end portion and a grip for facilitating manipulation of the device is disposed at a predetermined position of the first end portion.
Here, the grip may be disposed corresponding to the center of mass portion, and the center of mass portion may be configured to be located between 50% and 90% of a length of the device from an end of the second end portion. The grip may be disposed corresponding to the center of mass portion, and may be located within the center of mass portion, that is the range of 50% to 90% of a length of the device from an end of the second end portion.
Further, a stopper may be formed at the grip adjacent to the first end portion and may protrude from the grip to guide a gripping position of a user. The grip may include a seating groove formed at a portion of the grip with which a finger of a user is in contact and recessed into the body by a predetermined depth.
Further, the center of mass may be provided with the cooling medium, a cooling unit, and a heat dissipation unit. More specifically, the cooling medium may extend outside the first end portion by a predetermined length, the cooling unit may include a thermoelectric element configured to cool the cooling medium, and the heat dissipation unit may be configured to dissipate heat generated from the cooling unit.
In addition, the device may further comprise a container disposed between the cooling medium and the heat dissipation unit and defining a seating space for the thermoelectric element. The container may include a guide portion having a shape corresponding to an outer shape of the cooling medium, and the cooling medium may be inserted and seated in the guide portion by a predetermined depth.
Further, a battery may be disposed opposite to the cooling medium and the cooling tip with reference to the center of mass portion. 30% of a total weight of the device may be concentrated on the center of mass portion, when a battery is disposed at the second end.
According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, a device for cooling a living tissue may comprise a body; a first end portion disposed in the body, the first end portion including a cooling unit provided with the cooling medium that is configured to cool a target area, and a heat dissipation unit dissipating heat from the cooling unit, and a second end portion disposed in the body and formed opposite to the first end portion, wherein the heat dissipation unit includes a fan generating active air flow at fins provided at the heat dissipation unit, and an inlet introducing external air and an outlet discharging air in the device are formed at predetermined regions in the first end portion in which the fan is disposed, respectively, and wherein the air flows in and flows out within a predetermined portion of the body.
Here, the body may have air flow in which passive air flow proceeding opposite to a direction of gravity is combined with the active air flow caused by the fan, while the device is inclined by a predetermined angle with regard to ground to be operated by a user.
In addition, the device may further comprise a partition configured to block air flow between the first end portion including the cooling unit that cools the target area and the second end portion including a controller that controls the cooling unit. The inlet may be disposed in front of the heat dissipation unit, and the outlet may be disposed in a rear of the fan.
Air flow discharged from the outlet may include first air flow discharged directly from the fan and second air flow reflected from the partition.
Further, at least one of the inlet and the outlet may be formed at a tapered portion of the body. The inlet may be oriented upwardly inclined toward the stopper or the grip, and the outlet may be oriented downwardly inclined toward the second end portion.
Here, Air flow between the inlet and the outlet may pass through fins of a heat sink disposed within the body, and a time period for passing the fins may be different from positions where the air is introduced through the inlet.
A clearance between the fin of the heat dissipation unit and a case of the body may be set within a predetermined range. A controller for the fan may be disposed within the second end portion to control introducing external air from the inlet and discharging the external air to the outlet. Air flow may not be oriented horizontal at the inlet and the outlet.
According to still another embodiment of the present disclosure, a device for cooling a living tissue may comprise a removable cooling tip configured to contact a target area in the living tissue to cool the target area; and a tip case configured to support the cooling tip, the tip case including a coupling member configured to the cooling tip to the device, wherein the cooling tip is configured to be thermally and electric-potentially coupled with a cooling medium provided in the device.
The cooling tip may have an electric potential corresponding to an electric potential of any one of the cooling medium and a thermoelectric element in contact with the cooling medium by electric-potential coupling. At least one of the cooling tip and the cooling member is electric-potentially coupled with an element that can store electric charge.
Further, the tip case may have an electric circuit configured to determine a reuse of the cooling tip. The electric circuit may be configured to be opened by an electrical manner using an electric signal transmitted to the electric circuit or by a physical manner using force applied to the electric circuit.
In addition, the device may further comprise a reuse alarm unit for signaling the reuse of the cooling tip, and the reuse alarm unit may be configured to use any one of display, sound, or vibration to inform a user of the reuse of the cooling tip.
Here, the device may further comprise a reuse determination unit configured to determine whether the cooling tip is reused by determining an electric connection at the electric circuit; and a reuse prevention unit configured to limit use of the device using a predetermined manner when it is determined that the cooling tip is reused. The device may further comprise a circuit opening unit configured to open the electric circuit for preventing the reuse of the cooling tip, when it is determined that the cooling tip is in the normal use.
Further, the coupling member of the tip case may adopt one of a hook lock mechanism and a screw mechanism. The device may further comprise an elastic member providing elastic force to the cooling member in a direction opposite to a coupling direction of the tip case, to thermally couple the cooling member with the cooling tip. A grip with a predetermined shape may be formed at the tip case to facilitate detaching of the tip case.
Details of embodiments will be described in the following with reference to the accompanying drawings. Other features will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.
The present disclosure will become more fully understood from the detailed description given herein below and the accompanying drawings, which are given by illustration only, and thus are not intended to limit the scope of the present application, and wherein:
Description will now be given in detail according to exemplary embodiments disclosed herein, with reference to the accompanying drawings. For the sake of brief description with reference to the drawings, the same or equivalent components may be provided with the same reference numbers, and description thereof will not be repeated. In general, a term such as “module” and “unit” may be used to refer to elements or components. Use of such a term herein is merely intended to facilitate description of the specification, and the term itself is not intended to give any special meaning or function. In the present disclosure, that which is well-known to one of ordinary skill in the relevant art has generally been omitted for the sake of brevity. The accompanying drawings are used to help easily understand various technical features and it should be understood that the embodiments presented herein are not limited by the accompanying drawings. As such, the present disclosure should be construed to extend to any alterations, equivalents and substitutes in addition to those which are particularly set out in the accompanying drawings.
It will be understood that although the terms such as first, second and the like may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are generally only used to distinguish one element from another.
It will be understood that when an element is referred to as being “connected with” or “coupled with” another element, the element can be directly connected with the other element or intervening elements may also be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being “directly connected with” or “directly coupled with” another element, there are no intervening elements present.
A singular representation may include a plural representation unless it represents a definitely different meaning from the context.
Terms such as “comprise”, “include” or “have” are used herein and should be understood that they are intended to indicate an existence of several components, functions or steps, disclosed in the specification, and it is also understood that greater or fewer components, functions, or steps may likewise be utilized. Moreover, due to the same reasons, it is also understood that the present invention includes a combination of features, numerals, steps, operations, components, parts and the like partially omitted from the related or involved features, numerals, steps, operations, components and parts described using the aforementioned terms unless deviating from the intentions of the disclosed original invention.
Spatially relative terms, such as “inner,” “outer,” “beneath,” “below,” “lower,” “above,” “upper,” and the like, may be used herein for ease of description to describe one element or feature's relationship to another element(s) or feature(s) as illustrated in the figures. Spatially relative terms may be intended to encompass different orientations of the disclosure in use or operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures. For example, if any element in the figures is turned over, elements described as “below” or “beneath” other elements or features would then be oriented “above” the other elements or features. Thus, the example term “below” can encompass both an orientation of above and below. Such an element may be otherwise oriented (rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations) and the spatially relative descriptors used herein interpreted accordingly.
The cooling device according to the present disclosure may be configured to deliver rapid and safe anesthesia to an ocular surface to assist an injection into an eye or other medical therapies for the eye. Although the cooling device and method according to the embodiment of the present disclosure are described with regard to ocular treatment, such device and the method may be applicable to devices and methods for cooling other subjects.
Configuration of Cooling Device
Referring to
A center of mass portion C (see
The cooling medium 310 may be provided on one end of the removable cooling tip 10. The cooling medium 310 may physically contact the removable cooling tip 10 and may extend to the second end portion 220. Further, the cooling medium 310 may be in physical contact with a thermoelectric element 320. The cooling medium 310 may comprises thermally conductive material. In some embodiments, thermal conductivity may accompany electrical conductivity of the cooling medium 310. Such a cooling medium 310 may be referred to as a cooling rod, a cooling arm, and so forth. Further, the cooling tip 10 may be detachably coupled to the cooling device, more specifically a tip case 110 for a hygienic reason. The cooling tip 10 may be exposed from an end of the cooling device to contact the target. The cooling tip 10 may be made of thermally conductive material to facilitate transferring of cooling power from the cooling medium 310 to the target. In some embodiments, due to the thermal conductivity, the cooling tip 10 may also have an electrical conductivity. More specifically, the cooling tip 10 may comprise a body which has a thin wall and defines a space configured to receive a portion of the cooling medium 310, more specifically an end or a tip thereof so as to be in physical or thermal contact with such a portion. For example, the cooling tip 10 may comprise a cap or receptacle member.
A heat sink 330 may be configured to dissipate heat generated by the thermoelectric cooling unit. A fan 250 may be configured to forcibly discharge the heat dissipated from the heat sink 330 to an outside of the body 20 or the cooling device. The thermoelectric element 320 and the heat sink 330 may be radially disposed in an inner space of the body 20 about the cooling medium 310.
Meanwhile, in view of the relative position with regard to the target or the patient's eye, the cooling device may be classified into a front portion adjacent to the patent's eye while the cooling device is in use, and a rear portion relatively disposed apart from the patent's eye. In such classification, the front portion may include the heat sink 330, the cooling medium 310, a disposable and/or removable tip 10 and the like, and the rear portion may include a power source 400 and a controller 500. The controller 500 may comprise a printed circuit board and a processor installed on the printed circuit board along with other electric components. The controller 500 may be electrically connected to other components of the cooling device as shown and described herein to control operation thereof. Therefore, any features relating to the operation of the cooling device should be regarded as the features of the controller 500 as well.
According to the principle of the present disclosure, the cooling device may have the feature of being portable. The portability may imply that the user may easily and precisely manipulate the cooling device using the hand. For this purpose, the grip 230 may be placed in a front portion (i.e., the first end portion 210) like a writing tool (a pencil or a ballpoint pen) to naturally induce and support a stable grip. Further, mass or weight of components located in the rear portion (i.e., the second end portion 220) may be configured to be less than 50% of total device mass or weight. The target cooling function, which is another important feature of the cooling device, may be based on heat absorption and dissipation occurring on two opposite surfaces of the thermoelectric element (a Peltier element) 320, respectively. The heat sink 330 may be in contact with a heat dissipating or emitting surface of the thermoelectric element 320 and a heat absorbing or cooling surface thereof may be in contact with the cooling medium 310. Then, an interface for cooling the target, i.e., the cooling tip 10 may come into contact with cooling medium 310. Therefore, the cooling power may be transferred to target to be cooled subsequently through the thermoelectric element 320, the cooling medium 310, and the cooling tip 10, which are thermally and physically coupled to each other. More specifically, the thermoelectric element 320 generally may have a low coefficient of performance and may fail to provide sufficient cooling power flux to maintain tissue at a temperature relevant for anesthesia, if the thermoelectric element 320 is directly placed on the tissue. As described above, the cooling device may adopt the cooling medium 310 that collects the cooling power of multiple (or single) thermoelectric elements 320 and may concentrate this cooling over a small area via the cooling tip 10. Therefore, the cooling device may produce a sufficient cooling power flux required for rapid and sustainable low temperature for cooling of tissue.
If a distance between the cooling tip 10 and the thermoelectric element 320, that is, a length of the cooling medium 310, is relatively long, loss of the cooling power may occur in terms of heat transfer. For this reason, a cooling engine (i.e., the cooling medium 310 and the thermoelectric element 320) should be located close to the cooling tip 10. For such proximity to the cooling tip 10, the cooling medium 310, the thermoelectric element 320 and the heat sink 330 may be all located in the first end portion 210, i.e., the front portion. Therefore, the first end portion 210 where the grip 230 is located may naturally include the center of mass portion C since most of the components are concentrated in the first end portion 210.
Referring to
Meanwhile, in the embodiment of the present disclosure, the cooling device including the body 20 may be elongated for a predetermined length and may be formed in a shape such as a pencil which the user easily holds and handles. A shape of a cross-section of the body 20 may be circular, oval, polygonal, or a combination thereof.
As described above, the removable cooling tip 10 in direct contact with the target area may be installed at one end, i.e., at a front end of the cooling device. The first end portion 210 may further extend and thus include such an end of the cooling device to which the cooling tip 10 is attached together with the tip case 110.
Further, the first end portion 210 may be directed toward the target for anesthesia and the second end portion 220 may face upward from the ground at a predetermined angle, while the cooling device is in use.
The grip 230 may be disposed adjacent to the first end portion 210 and may be formed at a position where the user can easily hold and manipulate the cooling device. A stopper 231 may be formed at a boundary or an interface of the grip 230 adjacent to the first end 210a. The stopper 231 may protrude by a predetermined height and may guide gripping by the user.
The stopper 231 may serve to fix a position of the user's finger within the grip 230 to be close to the first end 210a. Such configuration of the stopper 231 may stably maintain the gripping of the user at the time of sophisticated work such as medical treatment or the like.
The stopper 231 may extend above from an outer surface of the body 20, and a shape thereof may be variously embodied. It is preferable that the position and shape of the stopper 231 may be determined in accordance with a shape and a position of a seating groove 232 formed so as to correspond to a shape of the finger.
The grip 230 may be formed with the seating groove 232 recessed into the body 20 to have a shape mating with the finger that is used to hold the body 20. One or more seating grooves 232 may be formed on the outer surface of the body 20, and may be shaped to have the same contour as the finger that is inserted into the seating grooves 232 for holding the cooling device.
For example, when the body 20 comprises an elongated rod such as the writing tool, a plurality of grips 230 may be disposed on the outer surface of the body 20 to receive the thumb, the index finger and the middle finger with having shapes corresponding to touching surfaces of these fingers. With such a configuration, the grips 230 may maintain the stable gripping of the cooling device.
Meanwhile, the grip 230 may be detachably installed in order for the user to selectively adjust a position of the grip 230 on the body 20.
According to the present disclosure, the center of mass portion C may include the center of mass M of the cooling device. More specifically, the center of mass portion C may comprise a portion of the cooling device between 50% and 90% of the overall device length from a rear end of the device, i.e., the second end 220a. Alternatively, the center of mass portion C may comprise a portion extending from the center of mass M toward the front end (i.e., the first end 210a or the first end portion 210) and the rear end (i.e., the second end 220a or the second end portion 220) by 20% of the overall device length, respectively. Under the influence of the gravity, the center of mass M and the center of mass portion C may be center of gravity and a center of gravity portion, respectively.
The grip 230 may be located within the center of mass portion C to be associated with the center of mass M in the cooling device, such that the user may perform the precise manipulation easily.
According to the preferred embodiment of the present disclosure, the center of mass M may be configured to be located between 40% and 80% of the overall device length from the second end 220a of the body, for easily gripping and handling the cooling device by the user. Further, the grip 230 may be located within a portion extending from the center of mass M toward the front end (i.e., the first end 210a or the first end portion 210) by 30% of the overall device length. In the preferred embodiment, the grip 230 may be provided within the center of mass portion C or may be partially overlapped with the center of mass portion C so that the user may precisely manipulate the device.
With such configuration, more than 30% of the total mass or weight of the cooling device may be concentrated on the center of mass portion C such that the user may precisely handle the device while gripping, and stability of the gripping may be continuously maintained.
In another embodiment of the present disclosure, the center of mass portion C may be formed over a range of the 55% and 95% of the overall device length from the second end 220a of the body 20. The grip 230 may be disposed within such a center of mass portion C. Alternatively, the grip 230 may be disposed outside of the center of mass portion C for allowing the ergonomic gripping.
The user may grip the body by a hand as if using the writing tool. That is, the grip 230 may be held using the thumb, the index finger, and the middle finger. Further, the user may operate the device within a range of approximately 45 degrees in both lateral directions (for example, left and right directions) with reference to an axis vertical to a target surface in the patient's eye.
Meanwhile, one or more stoppers 231 may be formed at the interface or the end of the grip 230 adjacent to the first end 210a or first end portion 210 and may protrude by a predetermined height. The stopper 231 may prevent the finger received in the grip 230 from moving toward the removable cooling tip 10 and interfering with the removable cooling tip 10, and may also serve to maintain the stable gripping on the body
Further, the grip 230 may include the seating groove 232 provided on the outer surface of the body 20. The seating groove 232 may be recessed into the body 20 and may have the shape mating with the finger that is used to hold the body 20. Further, in order to guide the gripping, a pair of stoppers 231 which functions as barriers may be oppositely provided on the outer surface of the body 20 to protrude therefrom by 3-10 mm. Therefore, the finger may be unable to move over the stoppers toward the end of the cooling device such that user may stably grip the cooling device. The stopper 231 may also cause friction with the fingers which enables tight holding of the cooling device. Therefore, the user may easily detach the tip case 110 with holding the body 20. Moreover, the stopper 231 may support the fingers against or opposite to the direction of the force applied to the target treated by the cooling tip 10, such that the cooling tip 10 may be in thermal contact with the target stably.
Referring to
The cooling medium 310 may further extend outside the first end portion 210 from the body 20 by a predetermined length. The thermoelectric cooling unit may include the cooling medium 310 and a thermoelectric element 320 configured to cool the cooling medium 310. The heat sink 330 may dissipate the heat generated by the thermoelectric cooling unit. Such thermoelectric cooling unit and the heat sink 330 may be disposed within the center of mass portion C. Further, the fan 250 may be disposed adjacent to the thermoelectric cooling unit, more specifically in a rear of the thermoelectric cooling unit, and may form a heat dissipation unit for cooling the thermoelectric cooling unit together with the heat sink 330. In some embodiments, the fan 250 may have a case with a cylinder shape, an axis of which is parallel with the length of the cooling device, such that the shape of the fan 250 is in the accordance with the circular or elliptical cross-section of the cooling device. Further, the fan 250 may comprise an axial flow fan, the axis of which is configured to be parallel with or coincide with the central axis of the cooling device, to facilitate air flow along such a central axis. As clearly shown in
The thermoelectric element 320 may refer to an element that generates the Peltier effect in which the heat is absorbed on one side of two different conductors and the heat is emitted on the opposite side thereof according to a direction of current when direct current is applied to both sides of two different conductors. In general, the thermoelectric element 320 may be also referred to as the Peltier element.
More specifically, the Peltier effect is reverse to the Seebeck effect and refers to the generation of temperature difference by simultaneously producing heat emission and heat absorption when potential difference is applied to the element including two different conductors. The heat absorbing surface of the thermoelectric element 320, i.e., the cooling surface thereof may be thermally coupled with the cooling medium 310. Thus, the cooling power of the thermoelectric element 320 may be transferred to the cooling medium 310 through surface contact. In other words, the heat may be transferred from the cooling medium 310 to thermoelectric element 320 through the surfaces thereof in contact with each other to achieve a low temperature of the cooling medium 310.
The heat generating or emitting surface of the thermoelectric element 320 may radiate or dissipate the heat through a plurality of cooling fins 331 formed at the heat sink 330, using thermal coupling with the heat sink 330.
The thermal and mechanical/physical coupling may be achieved in order of the cooling medium 310, the cooling surface of the thermoelectric element 320, the heat emitting surface of the thermoelectric element 320, and the heat sink 330. Due to such coupling, more than 30% of the total mass or weight of the cooling device may be concentrated on the center of mass portion C.
Meanwhile, as shown in
On the other hand, the mass or weight of the second end portion 220 may be configured to be less than 50% of the total mass or weight of the cooling device.
The cooling medium 310 may be interposed between the thermoelectric element 320 and the removable cooling tip 10 so as to transfer the cooling power of the thermoelectric cooling unit 320 to the removable cooling tip 10. The cooling medium 310 may physically contact both of the thermoelectric element 320 and the removable cooling tip 10.
More specifically, the cooling medium 310 may be thermally coupled to one end of the removable cooling tip 10 while physically contacting with such an end of the removable cooling tip 10, and may extend to the second end portion 220 from such a contacting end. The cooling medium 310 may comprises a body having various shapes of cross section such as a rectangular or circular shape. The embodiment of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the cooling medium 310 with the body extending by a predetermined length and having a rectangular cross section. Such a cooling medium 310 may be referred to as a cooling rod, cooling column, a cooling arm, and the like.
The cooling (or heat absorbing) surface of the thermoelectric element 320 may physically contact an outer surface of the cooling medium 310 to transfer the cooling power to the cooling medium 310, and the heat emitting surface of the thermoelectric element 320 may physically contact the an outer surface of the heat sink 330.
The single thermoelectric element 320 and the single heat sink 330 may be applied to provide the cooling power to the cooling medium 310. However, for more rapid cooling and anesthetization, a pair of thermoelectric elements 320 and a pair of heat sinks 330 may be provided to be symmetrically positioned with respect to the longitudinal direction of the cooling medium 310. More pairs of the thermoelectric elements 320 and the heat sink 330 may be installed for the same reason. More specifically, the pair of thermoelectric elements 320 may be radially disposed about the cooling medium 310, being in contact therewith. Further, the pair of heat sinks 330 may enclose the cooling medium 310 and the thermoelectric elements 320 while directly contacting the thermoelectric elements 320 only.
The container 340 may be interposed between the cooling medium 310 and the heat sink 330. The thermoelectric element 320 may be disposed within the container 340 while contacting the cooling medium 310 and the heat sink 330. The container 340 may have a shape and a structure corresponding to shapes and structures of the thermoelectric element 320 and the heat sink 330 such that the thermoelectric element 320 and the heat sink 330 may be combined as an assembly using the container 340. The container 340 may be made of material with the low thermal conductivity and thus may thermally isolate the cooling medium 310 from the heat sink 330.
The pair of containers 340 may be symmetrically disposed with regard to the cooling medium 310 and may have complementary structures to be coupled with each other. When such a pair of container 340 is coupled to each other, the thermoelectric elements 320 and the heat sink 330 may be placed on a predetermined position where the thermoelectric elements 320 directly contact the cooling member 310 and the heat sinks 330 also directly contact the thermoelectric elements 320, respectively to be thermally and physically coupled with one another.
Meanwhile, the container 340 may include a first guide 341 for cooling medium 310. The first guide 341 comprises a rib or a flange formed on a surface of the container 340 facing the cooling medium 310 and extending toward the cooling medium 310. The first guide 341 may be configured to support the cooling medium 310 by contacting a surface thereof, and thus may guide the cooling medium 310 to be located at a predetermined portion within the container 340. Further, a plurality of first guide 341 may be provided to the container 340 for more rigid support. In this case, the first guides 341 of the container 340 may enclose sides of the cooling medium 310 and may relatively define a recess into which at least a portion of the cooling medium 310 may be inserted. The first guide 341 may have substantially the same length as the facing surface of the cooling medium 310. Further, such a first guide 341 may be provided to each of the containers 340. Therefore, when the pair of containers 340 are coupled to each other, the first guides 341 of these containers 340 may define a space receiving a body of the cooling medium 310. That is, the containers 340 as the assembly may enclose the cooling medium 310. Therefore, with such guides 341, the containers 340 may securely hold the cooling medium 310.
Further, the container 340 may include a second guide 342 for the thermoelectric element 320. The second guide 342 may comprise a recess or an opening formed on a surface of the container 340 facing the cooling medium 310 to receive the thermoelectric element 320. The second guide 342 may be shaped to correspond to an outer shape of the thermoelectric elements 320 and thus may immovably receive the thermoelectric element 320. Therefore, the thermoelectric element 320 may be stably inserted and seated in the second guide 342 while exposing two opposite heat absorbing and emitting surfaces to the cooling medium 310 and the heat sink 330 from the container 340.
Further, the container 340 may include the third guide 343 in which the heat sink 330 is received. The third guide 343 may comprise a recess formed on a surface of the container facing the heat sink 330. The third guide 343 may receive a portion of the heat sink so as not to be separated from the container 340. Alternatively, the third guide 343 may comprise a flange protruding from the surface of the container 340 facing the heat sink 330. More specifically, the flange may be provided at an edge of the container 340. The flange may be latched on a side of the heat sink 330 and thus the heat sink 330 may be stably placed on the container 340. For more stable placement, a plurality of flanges (i.e., the third guide) may be formed on the container 340 to be latched on the different sides of the heat sink 330. In this case, the recess may be defined as the third guide 341 by the plurality of flanges spaced apart from each other.
With the configuration as described above, the thermoelectric element 320 and the heat sink 330 may be firmly held by the container 340 and may stably maintain the physical contact with the cooling medium 310. More specifically, the cooling or heat absorbing surface of the thermoelectric element 320 may be in contact with the cooling medium 310, and then, the heat sink 330 may be in contact with the heat dissipating or emitting surface of the thermoelectric element 320.
Air Flow in Cooling Device
Referring to
Meanwhile, an inlet 211 may be formed in front of the heat sink 330 having the fin 331 of the heat dissipation unit, and the outlet 221 may be formed in a rear of the fan 250 of the heat dissipation unit. The inlet 211 and the outlet 221 may be provided within the first end portion 210. The inlet 211 may serve to introduce external air into the body 20, and the outlet 221 may serve to dissipate the air heated in the body 20 to the outside of the cooling device.
Meanwhile, the inlet 211 and the outlet 221 may be formed at tapered portions, i.e., inclined portions of the body 20.
In an aspect of the outer shape or contour, the cooling device may comprise a first region 20a that is inclined outwardly from the first end 210a that is coupled to the tip case 110 to a predetermined position of the first end portion 210. Further, the cooling device may comprise a second region 20b that is generally horizontal, i.e., parallel to a center axis with extending from the first region 20a to a predetermined position of the center of mass portion C. That is, the center of mass portion C and the center of mass M may be included in the second region 20b.
Further, the cooling device may have a third region 20c that is inclined inwardly from an end of the second region 20b to a predetermined position of the first end portion 210. The third region 20c may be located corresponding or adjacent to the center of mass portion C. In such a configuration, the inlet 211 may be located at the first region 20a that is an inclined portion of the first end portion 210. The inlet 211 may comprise a plurality of through holes having a predetermined diameter. In contrast, the outlet 221 may be located at the third region 20c that is inclined in an opposite direction to the first region 20a. More specifically, due to the disposition in the first and second regions 20a and 20b, the inlet 211 may be oriented to be inclined upwardly (i.e., outwardly) and the outlet 221 may be oriented to be inclined downwardly (i.e., inwardly).
In addition, as shown in
As the inlet 211 and the outlet 221 may be disposed on the first and third regions 20a and 20c that are inclined, respectively, this may be advantageous for easily introducing the external air to the heat sink 330 and effectively discharging the heated air from the fan 250 to the outside of the body 20 or the cooling device.
The inlet 211 may be disposed adjacent to a front end of the grip 230 to guide the external air into the body 20. The outlet 221 may be spaced apart from the inlet 211 by a predetermined distance that covers the heat sink 330 and the fan 250. The shape of the inlet 211 and the outlet 221 may be a plurality of circular holes, a long hole, or various shapes. In detail, the inlet 211 may be provided between the grip 230 and the first end 220a, i.e. the removable tip case 110, and the outlet 221 may be provided at an interface between the first end portion 210 and the second end portion 220, such that air flow is not hindered by user grip. More specifically, the outlet 221 may be provided at an interface between the grip 230 and the second end portion 220, such that air flow is not hindered by user grip.
Generally, the cooling device may be manipulated with a predetermined angle with regard to the ground or a contact surface (i.e., target in the eye). In this case, since a temperature of the heated air from the heat sink 330 may be higher than a surrounding air temperature, the heated air may move upward, i.e. in the direction opposite to the gravity or in a direction vertical to the ground and may exit outside through the outlet 221. Further, the external air may flow in via the inlet 211 and the sub inlet 211a due to a pressure difference in the body. With this procedure, the heat sink 230 inclined as suggested in the present disclosure may be cooled by natural convection even with no additional forced air flow.
Referring to
The air flow within the cooling device may have significant influence on the heat absorption and dissipation of the heat sink 330. The heat absorption may occur between the heat emitting surface of the thermoelectric element 320 and the heat sink 330, and the heat dissipation may occur between the heat sink 330 and the air flow in the body 20. A direction or an orientation of the air flow may determine the effective heat dissipation by causing the air flow to pass through every fin 331 on the heat sink 330.
In some embodiments, the effective dissipation may be related to a speed of air flow passing between the fins 331 of the heat sink 330. In view of the speed of the air flow, the air introduced through the inlet 211 may flow parallel to tops or bottoms of the fins 331 through a space between such fins 331 when there is no control for guiding the air flow. That is, the introduced air may flow parallel to a surface extending between the bottoms of the adjacent fins 331. However, if the air flow is directed to the bottoms of the fins 331, such air flow may gradually spread out and may travel toward the tops of the fins 331 due to the reduced speed thereof by the frictional resistance at the bottoms, while passing through the space between the fins 331, and thus may extensively contact surfaces of the fins 331 to enhance the efficiency of the heat dissipation. For these reasons, the inlet 211 may be configured to direct the air flow to the bottoms of the fins 331. More specifically, the inlet 211 may be located at a position that is able to guide the air flow to the bottoms of the fins 331. Further, the inlet 211 may be oriented toward the fins 331, more specifically the bottoms of the fins 331. That is, the inlet 211 may face the bottoms of fins 331 located at an entrance portion or a front portion of the heat sink 330. In some implementations, the air flow may be directed above the bottom of the fin 331 or below the bottom of the fin 331 by 2 mm.
Further, the outlet 221 may be designed such that a maximum volume of air may escape by minimizing the resistance interrupting the air flow. Generally, the air flow discharged from the fan 250 may travel and hit a wall of the body and this may create a back flow in the opposite direction. In this case, turbulent flow may be created in the rear of the fan 250 and may act as additional resistance to the discharge of the air flow. Therefore, it is required for the cooling device to directly guide the air flow discharged from the fan 250 to the outside of the cooling device. For this reasons, the outlet 221 may be oriented toward an outlet portion of the fan 250 discharging the air, such that the discharged air is smoothly directed toward and directly passes through the outlet 221.
As described above, the inlet 211 and the outlet 221 may be configured to be oriented toward an entrance of fins 331 (or the heat sink 330) and an exit of the fan 250, respectively. For such a configuration, the inlet 211 and outlet 221 may be located at the first and third regions 20a and 20b that are inclined to face the fins 331 and the fan 250, respectively. Therefore, the air flow may be formed in a smoothly curved path from the inlet 211 to the outlet 221. For these reasons, the air flow may extensively contact the surfaces of the fins 331 and may directly travel out of the cooling device through the outlet 221. Further, as the sub inlet 211a may initially introduce the air to the front end of the heat sink 330, this may facilitate an extended smoother path of the air flow. Moreover, as the partition 240 is located adjacent to the outlet 221, the partition 240 may also guide the air flow in the device toward the outlet 221. In this case, the air flow discharged from the outlet 221 may include first air flow discharged directly from the fan 250 and second air flow reflected and guided by the partition 240.
Referring to
According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the cooling device may comprise the controller 500 configured to control the fan 250 which introduces the external air at the inlets 211, 211a, and 211b and forcibly discharges the heated air to the outlet 221. The controller 500 may control a motor for driving the fan 250 and a thermal sensor 260 provided in the body 20 and detecting a temperature in the body 20. As the fan 250 discharges the heated air with a high temperature, the thermal sensor 260 may be disposed adjacent to the outlet portion of the fan 250, i.e. in the rear of the fan 250. Such thermal sensor 260 may detect the temperature of heated air that may flow around within the body 20 and directly affect the operation of the nearby components. Thus, locating the thermal sensor 260 in the rear of the fan 250 may be advantageous for maintaining the stable operation of the cooling device by controlling the internal temperature.
When the temperature detected by the thermal sensor 260 is higher than a predetermined temperature, the controller 250 may selectively operate the fan 250 to maintain the temperature in the body 20 below the predetermined temperature.
A display unit may be further installed on the outer surface of the body 20 to indicate the temperature detected by the thermal sensor 260. The user may determine whether the cooling device may be used, based on change in temperature and color indicated in the display unit.
Further, thermal sensors 261 and 262 may be additionally provided to the heat sink 330 and the cooling medium 310, respectively. With these thermal sensors 261 and 262, temperatures of heat sink 330 and the cooling medium 310 may be monitored and properly regulated by the controller 500. The temperatures detected by the thermal sensors 261 and 262 may be also indicated in the display unit such that the user may manually interrupt the operation of the cooling device under an abnormal condition.
Meanwhile, a thermal sensor 263 may be further installed on the removable cooling tip 10 to detect a temperature of the removable cooling tip 10. The current temperature of the removable cooling tip 10 may also be indicated on the display unit. More specifically, the current temperature of the removable cooling tip 10 may be displayed by numbers or color change. Therefore, the user may determine whether the cooling tip 10 is prepared for cooling and anesthetizing the target based on the information provided by the display unit and may also interrupt the anesthetization of the target based thereon. To easily detect the temperature of the cooling tip 10, a remote sensor such as an infrared temperature sensor may be adapted as the thermal sensor 263 for the cooling tip 10. The cooling tip 10 may be configured to cause black body radiation by coating for correct detection by the remote thermal sensor 263.
As described above, the cooling device may include the first end portion 210 provided with the removable cooling tip 10 and the cooling medium 310 thermally coupled with the removable cooling tip 10. The cooling device may further include the fan 250 generating the air flow around the heat sink 330 that may be configured to dissipate the heat of the thermoelectric element 220. The air flow inside and outside the cooling device may be formed around the first end portion 210. The inlet 211 and the outlet 221 may be formed at a predetermined portion of the cooling device in which the fan 250 is disposed.
While the cooling device is in use or operation, i.e. the user causes the cooling device to contact the target to be anesthetized by cooling, the cooling device may be actually in a posture having a predetermined angle with regard to the ground, as shown in
In the passive air flow P, the air heated by the heat sink 330 in the body may have a temperature higher than a temperature of the external or surrounding air and may become lighter than such surrounding air, so that the heated air rises upward. The passive air flow P may not be the air flow by the external force but circulation of the air according to the natural convection due to the difference in the specific gravity of the air. Meanwhile, in contrast to the passive air flow P, the active air flow A may refer to forced air flow made by the fan 250 in the body 20. As the active air flow A may be induced by the exerted force, the active air flow A may be formed in any directions as desired.
To facilitate the discharge of the air flow, the cooling device, particularly the body 20 thereof may be configured to combine the active air flow A with the passive air flow P while the cooling device in use, i.e., in the inclined posture. For such a combination, the outlet 221 may be configured to be oriented substantially parallel to the ground when the cooling device in use. As the outlet 221 may be formed at the third region 20c, the inwardly inclined portion, the outlet 221 may be oriented substantially parallel to the ground while the cooling device is in the inclined posture. More specifically, to be parallel to the ground, the outlet 211, particularly the third region 20c may be inclined with regard to the center axis of the cooling device within an angle range 30-60 degrees with which the cooling device in use is inclined. As the outlet 221 may be configured to be parallel to the ground while the cooling device in use, the passive air flow P travelling upward, i.e., in a direction normal to the ground may be directly discharged through the outlet 221 with no resistance. In another exemplary use, the cooling device may be inclined such that the inlet 211 locates at a position vertically lower than the outlet 221. With the location of the inlet 211 vertically lower than the outlet 221, the hot air at the heat sink 330 may naturally flow, and may produce the passive air flow P toward outlet 221. Further, the fan 250 may be configured to produce the active air flow A in the same direction as the passive air flow P when the cooling device is in use. More specifically, as described above referring related drawings, the fan 250 may generate the active air flow A from the front portion of the cooling device toward the rear portion with the smoothly curved path. When the cooling device is erected or inclined while in operation, as shown in
With such a configuration as described above, the passive air flow P may serve as additional force acting in the same direction as the force by the fan 250 and thus may accelerate the air flow within the body. Therefore, the active air flow A and passive air flow P may be combined and proceed in the same direction and thus the cooling of the heat sink 330 may be greatly enhanced. As shown in
Meanwhile, the thermoelectric cooling unit may be provided at the first end portion 210, and the power source 400 and the controller 500 may be disposed at the second end portion 220. The partition 240 may be installed between the thermoelectric cooling unit and the power source 400/the controller 500 in the body 20. In other words, the first and second end portions 210 and 220 may be divided by the partition 240 to separate the thermoelectric cooling unit and the power source 400/the controller 500 from each other. With such a partition 240, the thermoelectric cooling unit and the power source 400/the controller 500 may be physically and thermally isolated from each other. Therefore, any heated air made around the thermoelectric cooling unit may not flow into the power source 400/the controller 500, and thus the power source 400/the controller 500 may correctly operate not affected by the heated air
Although the components of the cooling device related to cooling and heat dissipating are described separately, they may be categorized again as follows for better understanding, in view of their functions.
The thermoelectric cooling unit may comprise the cooling medium 310 thermally coupled with the cooling tip 10, and the thermoelectric element 320 providing the cooling power to the cooling medium 310. The heat dissipation unit may comprise the heat sink 330 dissipating the heat from the thermoelectric element 320 and the fan 250 providing the air flow to the heat sink 330 for cooling.
Cooling Tip and Tip Case Configuration
In the cooling device, the removable cooling tip 10 may be configured to directly contact and cool the target. Further, the tip case 110 may be configured to support the cooling tip 10 and may include a coupling member 120 for attaching the cooling tip 10 to the cooling device. Referring to the related drawings, the cooling tip 10 and the tip case 110 will be described in detail.
Referring to
More specifically, the cooling medium 310 may be physically in contact with the thermoelectric element 320. Further, the cooling medium 310 may be coupled to the removable tip 10 in a physical manner. The cooling medium 310 may also be coated with or made of metal that has flatness better than 100 micrometer and excellent heat transferability. Therefore, due to such a physical coupling, the cooling tip 10 may be adapted to thermally and electric-potentially coupled to the cooling medium 310. Meanwhile, the thermoelectric element 320 may comprise two opposite substrates and the two different conductors interposed between the substrates. These substrates may be made of ceramic or another dielectric material that does not conduct electricity. Further, one of the substrates may actually contact with the cooling medium 310 to provide the cooling power. Since the heat transfer between the thermoelectric element 320 and the cooling medium 310 occurs through lattice vibration, a significant amount of heat within the cooling medium 310 made of metallic materials may propagate due to high electrical conductivity within the cooling medium 310. Accordingly, the cooling power transfer between the cooling medium 310 and the cooling tip 10 is correlated with electric-potential coupling between the cooling medium 310 and the cooling tip 10.
Such coupled potentials between the cooling medium 310 and the cooling tip 10 may be stabilized by the electrical coupling of the cooling tip 10 and/or the cooling medium 310 with an element configured to function as an electric storage. More specifically, the electric charge of the cooling medium 310 may be drained to the electric storage, and thus the potential may be regulated by the potential coupling as described above. In some embodiments, the electric storage element may be replaced with an element that can store electric charges such as the power source 400 that is electrically connected to both the cooling medium 310 and the thermoelectric element 320. In another embodiment, the electric-potential coupling between the cooling medium 310 and the power source 400 may be realized through the thermoelectric element 320. For such configuration of the potential coupling between the cooling medium 310 and the power source 400 through the thermoelectric element 320, the thickness of the electrical insulating substrate of the thermoelectric element 320 may be smaller than 1 mm. When the power source 400 serves as the electric storage and the electric-potential coupling between the power source 400 and the cooling medium 310 is made through the thermoelectric element 320 without any additional electric storage that is directly coupled with the cooling medium 310, such coupled potentials between the cooling medium 310 and the cooling tip 10 may be stabilized within a range of operating electric-potential of the thermoelectric element 320. For more efficient stabilization of potential, the cooling medium 310 and/or the cooling tip 10 may be coupled to a separate electric storage dedicated to the cooling medium 310, and this may also establish a further potential coupling between the cooling tip 10 and the cooling medium 310.
The electric potential coupling of the cooling tip 10, the cooling medium 310 and the element functioning as the electric storage may be established prior to the treatment by the cooling device, and thus may stabilize the potential in advance well before the contact of the cooling tip 10 with the target. In some embodiments, the potential coupling of the cooling tip 10, the cooling medium 310 and the element functioning as the electric storage may be achieved prior to the treatment and then may be maintained during the treatment.
For these reasons, the cooling tip 10 may have electrical stability and may prevent any electric leakage to the target in the eye while in contact therewith.
Meanwhile, the removable tip 10 may have two functions. According to one embodiment, the removable tip 10 may have a heat transfer function for rapidly cooling the target using the cooling medium 310, which receives the cooling power from the thermoelectric element 320 and cools the removable tip 10 based on the thermal coupling between the tip 10, the medium 310, and the thermoelectric element 320. According to the other embodiment, the removable tip 10 may also have a reuse prevention function for maintaining sterility of the target.
To achieve these functions, particularly the heat transfer function, the cooling tip 10 and the tip case 110 may first need to be coupled to the cooling medium 310 with minimum thermal resistance. In an aspect of the heat transfer, main thermal resistance may be physical clearance between the cooling medium 310 and the cooling tip 10. A fastening mechanism may be required to minimize or remove the physical clearance such that the cooling tip 10 is thermally integrated with the cooling member 310 as one body. As an example according to the present disclosure,
Referring to
The tip case 110 may include a grip 111 formed adjacent to the rear end thereof that is coupled to the body 20 of the cooling device. The grip 111 may provide a space for the finger to manipulate the tip case 110 while the tip case 110 is attached to or detached from the cooling device. For example, the grip 111 may be formed inclined inwardly toward the center axis of the cooling device. That is, the grip 111 may comprise a tapered portion of the tip case 110 extending to adjoin the front end of the body 20 of the cooling device. Such a grip 111 may define a surface for rigidly supporting the fingers and thus the tip case 110 may be easily attached to or detached form the cooling device using the grip 111.
Additionally, the tip case 110 may include a sub grip 111a formed on an outer surface of the tip case body to facilitate attaching or detaching of the tip case 110. The sub grip 111a is also well shown in
In view of the configuration as described above, the grip 111 may be advantageous for pressing the tip case 110 and thus may be adapted to be used along with the hook lock mechanism as shown in
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the cooling device may have a pressing mechanism configured to apply pressure on the cooling medium 310 to achieve a close adhesion to the cooling tip 10. Such a pressing mechanism will be described as follows.
In one embodiment, the cooling medium 310 may be immovably installed within the containers 340. However, in another embodiment, the cooling medium 310 may be configured to be detachably coupled to the container 340. That is, the cooling medium 310 may be movable within the container 340. In this case, the coupling between the cooling medium 310 and the cooling tip 10 may be enhanced by applying an elastic member 130 to the cooling medium 310. Referring to
In some embodiments, the physical and thermal coupling between the cooling tip 10 and the cooling medium 310 may be facilitated by a smooth interface. Specifically, the roughness of the surfaces that form the interface between the cooling tip 10 and the cooling medium 310 may be less than 5 μm Ra. In another embodiment, a thin medium layer having thermal conductivity larger than 1 W/m-K such as thermal paste and graphite film may be used at the interface between the cooling tip 10 and the cooling medium 310.
Referring to
Referring to
Further, as shown in
Further, the controller 500 may determine whether the cooling tip 10 is reused or not, using the circuit. When the cooling tip 10 is coupled, the controller 500 may receive the signal from the established closed circuit and such a signal may acts as a count and stored in the controller 500. If the cooling tip 10 is decoupled and such a decoupling is recognized by the controller 500, the controller 500 may reset the count of the use. The controller 500 may be configured to transmit to and receive from the circuit to check the coupling of the cooling tip 10 every time the cooling device is in use or operation to cool the target. If the cooling tip 10 previously used is not decoupled and used again, the controller 500 may add to the count when receiving the returned signal and may determine that total count of use is greater than the predetermined count, i.e., a single time. In this case, the controller may disable or inactivate the cooling device and thus the reuse of the cooling tip 10 may be prevented. Further, the controller 500 may provide an indication to the user in order to prevent the reuse. For example, the indication may be beeping or lighting.
Meanwhile, using the circuit formed between the tip 10, the medium 310, and the connector 511, the controller 500 may be further configured to determine the reuse of the cooling tip 10 in a different manner, i.e., based on unavailability of the connector 511. More specifically, as described above, the connector 511 may be thin and narrow member and may be in contact with the body of the tip case 110. When the tip case 110 is pressed or twisted to be detached from the body 20 of the cooling device, the external force acts on the connector and thus the connector 511 may be deformed or broken down. Due to the deformation, the connector 511 may not be connected to the controller 511 via the wire, and the circuit may become opened even though the tip case 110 with the cooling tip is coupled to the body 20 again. Therefore, the controller 500 may not receive any returned signal from the circuit and thus may determine that the cooling tip 10 currently being coupled has been used. In this case, the controller 500 may interrupt the activation of the cooling device, and thus the reuse of the cooling tip 10 may be restricted. Alternatively, if the controller 500 receives any returned signal from the closed circuit, the controller 500 may determine that the cooling tip 10 has not been used and is in normal use. In this case, the controller 500 may normally operate the cooling device to proceed with cooling the target.
Alternatively, in view of the thin and narrow body thereof, the connector 511 may be blown out like a fuse by an excessive electric current. Further, the connector 511 may comprise a separate fuse 511a including a portion of the connector thinner and narrower than other portions of the connector 511. After the single use of the cooling tip 10, the controller 500 may apply the excessive current to the connector 511 to be blown out. As already mentioned above, the circuit may become opened even though the tip case 110 along with the cooling tip 10 is coupled to the body 20 again. Accordingly, the controller 500 may interrupt the activation of the cooling device to prevent the reuse of the cooling tip 10 since the controller 500 fails to receive any returned signal.
As described above, the unavailability of the connector 511, i.e., the deformation or the breakage thereof may be directly associated with the opening of the electric circuit, which then results in the reuse of the cooling tip 10. Therefore, in the above configuration for detecting the reuse, the connector 511 may be regarded as the electric circuit itself configured to determine the reuse of the cooling tip 10.
As shown in a perspective view of
As described above, the electric circuit may be configured to be opened in an electrical manner using the excessive current or in a physical manner using the force exerted on the tip case 110. Further, at least one of the cooling tip 10 and the cooling medium 310 may be grounded through an electrical connection with the cooling device, i.e., the potential coupling.
In view of the operation and the function as describe above, the controller may be divided into functional units or circuitries, as shown in
The cooling device and method according to the present disclosure may have the following advantages.
The cooling device and method according to the embodiment of the present disclosure may solve severe patient's waiting and clinic work load due to time-consuming anesthesia required by conventional therapies and may significantly reduce psychological burden and pain of the patients with ocular anesthetic agents.
According to some embodiments, the user may treat the patient while stably gripping the cooling device through a configuration considering center of mass and ergonomics.
According to some embodiments, contamination or contagion via the cooling device may be effectively prevented by adopting a disposable cooling tip.
According to some embodiments, the cooling device is stably operated while rapidly anesthetizing the target based on a configuration facilitating internal air flow for effective heat dissipation.
Although embodiments have been described with reference to a number of illustrative embodiments thereof, it should be understood that numerous other modifications and embodiments can be devised by those skilled in the art that will fall within the spirit and scope of the principles of this disclosure. More particularly, various variations and modifications are possible in the component parts and/or arrangements of the subject combination arrangement within the scope of the disclosure, the drawings and the appended claims. In addition to variations and modifications in the component parts and/or arrangements, alternative uses will also be apparent to those skilled in the art.
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/828,449, filed on Dec. 1, 2017, the contents of which are all hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 15828449 | Dec 2017 | US |
| Child | 16993229 | US |
