The present invention generally relates to nested cannula designs for patients experiencing lung collapse, typically caused by air, blood or fluid in the pleural cavity. The present invention specifically relates to a standardized set of cannula tubes employing a fluid suction tube having a fixed orientation relative to a pleural port tube to reach a target location within a pleural cavity of a patient to facilitate proper removal of air, blood or other fluids so that the lung may re-expand.
Under normal conditions, the pleural cavity surrounding the lung has a lower pressure than within the lung. The lower pressure in the pleural cavity pulls the lung surface toward the chest wall, similar to vacuum pressure. As the chest and ribs expand, the vacuum pressure in the pleural cavity increases, pulling the lung surface outward. This in turn expands the lung airways and alveoli. The reverse process occurs during exhalation. However, if any part of the pleural cavity is filled with air, blood or other fluid, then the vacuum pressure drops and the lung surface cannot be held closely to the chest wall. The result is a collapsed lung.
Under a collapsed lung condition as exemplarily shown in
There are many potential causes for a collapsed lung condition, such as, for example, an traumatic injury to the lung or chest wall or a lung disease such as emphysema. Irrespective of the cause of the collapsed lung condition, a hollow chest tube may be used to remove any fluid from the pleural cavity, particularly if a large area of a lung has collapsed. Typically, the chest tube is inserted between the ribs into the fluid-filled pleural cavity and a suction device attached to the chest tube removes the fluid from the chest cavity, enabling the lung to re-expand.
Many potential problems exist with the current use of a hollow chest tube, such as, for example, a puncturing of the collapsed lung during the insertion of the chest tube. However, while a customized chest tube based on image of the pleural cavity may avoid any puncture of the collapsed lung and/or an image based insertion of the chest tube may avoid any puncture of the collapse lung, a collapsed lung condition may occur suddenly and without warning and must be rapidly corrected for the patient to breathe properly. In such a case, a customized chest tube and/or image based tracking of a chest tube would be impractical, slow solutions for correcting the collapsed lung condition.
The present invention addresses a rapid correction of a collapsed lung condition (e.g., pneumothorax treatment) by providing a standardized nested cannula design that may be used immediately upon diagnosis of the collapsed lung condition.
One form of the present invention is a surgical tool set for treating a collapsed lung condition employing a trocar, and a nested cannula including a pleural port tube and a fluid suction tube. In operation, the trocar is nested within the pleural port tube, and utilized to puncture a port into the pleural cavity of the patient while securing the pleural port tube within the port. Subsequent to removing the trocar from the pleural port tube, a fluid suction tube is advanced with a fixed orientation through the secured pleural port tube in a direction of a pleural cavity target location and fluid (e.g., air and blood) is suctioned from the pleural cavity through one or more perforated holes of the fluid suction tube. The fluid suction tube may have a target orientation section or an additional target orientation tube may be used to fix the orientation of the fluid suction tube relative to the pleural port tube.
The foregoing form and other forms of the present invention as well as various features and advantages of the present invention will become further apparent from the following detailed description of various embodiments of the present invention read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. The detailed description and drawings are merely illustrative of the present invention rather than limiting, the scope of the present invention being defined by the appended claims and equivalents thereof.
The present invention is premised on a standardized set of cannula tubes having a fixed orientation as the cannula tube(s) are extended in a direction of a target location within a pleural cavity of a patient. The fixed orientation is particularly important in the context of a cannula tube having a longitudinal non-zero curvature (e.g., an arc) along a portion or an entirety of the cannula tube. To facilitate an understanding of the present invention, an exemplary surgical tool set (
Specifically, the surgical tool set employs a trocar 20 (
Referring to
In practice, trocar 20 and pleural port tube 30 may be configured and dimensioned to interlock during a nesting of a trocar 20 within pleural port tube 30 to impede or eliminate any rotation of trocar 20 within pleural port tube 30. For example, in the illustrated embodiments, trocar 20 and pleural port tube 30 have polygonal cross-sectional shapes that are dimensioned to interlock trocar 30 with pleural port tube 30 as trocar 20 is being nested within pleural port tube 30. Additional interlocking configurations of trocar 20 and pleural port tube 30 include a keyed configuration (meaning there are stops prohibiting over extending the tube?) or a rigid configuration.
Also in practice, pleural port tube 30 may be a longitudinally straight tube as shown in
Referring to
In practice, target orientation tube 40 may be a longitudinally curved tube that is shown in
Subsequent to the advancement of target orientation tube 40 within pleural port tube 30, fluid suction tube 50 is advanced within target orientation tube 40 in a direction of target location 15 whereby a distal end 53 of fluid suction tube 50 extends from target orientation tube 40 and a plurality of perforated holes of distal end 53 as best shown in
In practice, fluid suction tube 50 may be a longitudinally straight tube as shown in
In an alternative embodiment of fluid suction tube 50, distal end section 53 may be integrated with distal section 43 of target orientation tube 40 to create a fluid suction tube having a perforated air suction section 53 and a target orientation section 40.
In practice, intermediate section 52 of fluid suction tube may include perforated hole(s) whereby a gap between target orientation tube 40 and fluid suction tube 50 may be utilized to suction air from pleural cavity 10, particularly if an inflating lung 11 starts to cover the perforated hole(s) of distal section 53 and bend fluid suction tube 50. Furthermore, a tip of distal section 53 is preferably rounded or covered by a soft material (e.g., rubber).
Also in practice, a standard atlas of a respiratory region of a body, human or animal, may be utilized to identify target location 15 spaced from collapsed lung 11 to prevent any potential puncturing of collapsed lung 11, and pleural port tube 30, target orientation tube 40 and fluid suction tube 50 may be configured and dimensioned with the objective of getting as close as possible to, if not reaching, target location 15. As such, the nested cannula may be commercially provided in different size sets to cover a dimensional range of respiratory regions from small (e.g., for a baby or a toddler) to medium (e.g., for teenagers and your adults to large (e.g., for adults).
Furthermore in practice, if practical in view of the collapsed lung condition of the patient, an imaging of the respiratory region may be utilized to track the translation of target orientation tube 40 and fluid suction tube 50 in the direction of the target location and to track a withdrawal of target orientation tube 40 and fluid suction tube 50 as lung 11 is inflated. Alternatively, a user of the surgical tool set may use experience and skill in tracking a translation of target orientation tube 40 and fluid suction tube 50 in the direction of the target location and a withdrawal of target orientation tube 40 and fluid suction tube 50 as lung 11 is inflated.
Please note the terms “pleural port”, “target orientation” and “fluid suction” are means for differentiating the various tubes of the nested cannula and are not intended to limit the scope of the nested cannula in accordance with the present invention.
Referring to
While various embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated and described, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the embodiments of the present invention as described herein are illustrative, and various changes and modifications may be made and equivalents may be substituted for elements thereof without departing from the true scope of the present invention. In addition, many modifications may be made to adapt the teachings of the present invention without departing from its central scope. Therefore, it is intended that the present invention not be limited to the particular embodiments disclosed as the best mode contemplated for carrying out the present invention, but that the present invention includes all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/IB2013/054866 | 6/14/2013 | WO | 00 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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61659607 | Jun 2012 | US |