Claims
- 1. A surgical drape assembly for use as a sterile container of sterile medium in a surgical slush machine having a cooled basin recessed in the top surface of the machine, said drape assembly comprising:
- a sterile conformable sheet of sufficient size to cover and hang down from the top surface of said machine to maintain a sterile field above said machine, said sheet having a container portion adapted to be substantially conformed to said basin; and
- a rigid member bonded to said container portion of said sheet.
- 2. The drape assembly of claim 1 wherein said rigid member is a disk-like member secured to the bottom of said container portion of said sheet.
- 3. The drape assembly of claim 2 wherein said sheet has a top side adapted to face away from said machine and an underside adapted to face said machine, and wherein said disk is secured to the underside of said sheet.
- 4. The drape assembly of claim 3 wherein said disk has a contour matching the bottom of said basin.
- 5. The drape assembly of claim 3 wherein said surgical slush machine includes a mechanism for automatically moving said disk in a cyclical manner, and wherein said disk includes attachment means for removably attaching said disk to said mechanism.
- 6. The drape assembly of claim 5 wherein said mechanism includes a longitudinally reciprocable vertically oriented shaft, and wherein said attachment means includes means for attaching said disk to said shaft to cause said disk to reciprocate vertically with said shaft.
- 7. The drape assembly of claim 5 wherein said attachment means includes a snap-fit engagement.
- 8. The drape assembly of claim 5 wherein said attachment means is a friction fit engagement.
- 9. The drape assembly of claim 5 wherein said sheet and said disk are bonded together by a layer of adhesive material.
- 10. The drape assembly of claim 5 wherein said sheet and said disk are bonded together at a weld.
- 11. The drape assembly of claim 5 wherein said mechanism includes a selectively wobbled plate, and wherein said disk includes means for removably engaging said disk and plate to cause said disk to wobble with said plate.
- 12. A drape assembly for use with a surgical slush machine to provide a sterile drape container conformable to a cooling basin to contain a sterile slush medium formed by the cooling of the basin, said drape assembly comprising:
- a sheet of material having top and bottom surfaces and impervious to said medium, said sheet being sized to overlie and hang down from said machine while forming a drape container substantially conformed to said cooling basin; and
- a disk-like member bonded to the bottom surface of said sheet below said drape container, said disk-like member being sufficiently rigid to support said sterile slush medium without bending or flexing.
- 13. The drape assembly of claim 12 wherein said sheet and said member are bonded together by a layer of adhesive material.
- 14. The drape assembly of claim 12 wherein said sheet and said member are bonded together at a weld.
- 15. The drape assembly of claim 12 wherein said basin has a bottom wall with a predetermined contour, and wherein said disk-like member has a contour substantially similar to said predetermined contour.
- 16. The drape assembly of claim 12 wherein said machine includes a selectively movable mechanism projecting into said basin, and wherein said drape assembly further comprises attachment means for removably attaching said disk-like member to said mechanism to permit movement of said disk-like member with said mechanism.
- 17. The drape assembly of claim 16 wherein said mechanism includes a longitudinally reciprocable shaft projecting vertically into said basin from below said basin, and wherein said attachment means comprises a snap-fit engagement.
- 18. The drape assembly of claim 16 wherein said mechanism includes a longitudinally reciprocable shaft projecting vertically into said basin from below said basin, and wherein said attachment means comprises a friction fit engagement.
- 19. In a surgical slush machine of the type wherein a sterile medium in liquid form is contained in a liquid impervious sterile drape container conformed to a basin being cooled to cause the sterile medium to freeze and adhere to the drape adjacent cooled portions of the basin, a method for automatically detaching frozen pieces of the sterile medium from the drape, said method comprising the steps of:
- (a) bonding a disk-like member to the bottom of said drape container;
- (b) automatically and repetitively raising and lowering said disk-like member to manipulate the drape relative to the basin and thereby displace said drape from cooled portions of the basin;
- (c) collecting said detached pieces in said drape container as sterile slush.
- 20. The method of claim 19 wherein step (a) includes disposing a layer of adhesive material between said drape and said member.
- 21. The method of claim 19 wherein step (a) includes welding said member to said drape container.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is a continuation-in-part of our U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/274,869, filed Jul. 14, 1994, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,377,504, which is a division of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/125,279, filed Sep. 23, 1993, our U.S. Pat. No. 5,331,820.
US Referenced Citations (7)
Divisions (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
125279 |
Sep 1993 |
|
Continuation in Parts (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
274869 |
Jul 1994 |
|