The invention relates to medical devices and more particularly to devices for use in insertion or implantation of catheters and the like into the vasculature of patients.
Catheters are used in numerous medical procedures. In particular, catheters are used for the introduction or removal of fluids from various venous regions and vessels throughout the body, such as for hemodialysis. The procedure by which these catheters are introduced to the body is delicate and complex. One particularly intricate challenge to catheterization is enlarging a hole in the flesh and vessel to be catheterized while minimizing blood loss and trauma to the patient. Generally, to insert any catheter in a blood vessel, the vessel is identified by aspiration with a long hollow needle in accordance with the Seldinger technique. When blood enters a syringe attached to the needle, indicating that the vessel has been found, a thin guide wire is then introduced, typically through the syringe needle or other introducer device, into the interior of the vessel. The introducer device is then removed, leaving the guide wire within the vessel. The guide wire projects beyond the surface of the skin.
At this point, several options are available to a physician for catheter placement. The simplest option is to pass a catheter into the vessel directly over the guide wire. The guide wire is then removed. However, use of this technique is only possible in cases where the catheter is of a relatively small diameter, made of a stiff material and not significantly larger than the guide wire. If, however, the catheter is of a relatively large diameter and/or not made of a soft material, one preferable method of inserting the catheter into the vessel is through an introducer sheath. The introducer sheath is simply a large, stiff, thin-walled tube, which serves as a temporary conduit for the catheter that is being placed. The sheath is positioned by placing a dilator, which has a hollow passageway along its longitudinal axis, inside of the sheath and passing both the dilator and the sheath together into the vessel over the guide wire. The dilator expands the opening in the blood vessel to allow for catheter insertion into the vessel. The guide wire and dilator are then removed, leaving the thin-walled sheath in place. The catheter is then inserted into the vessel through the sheath.
In a setting where a catheter with a hub or other attachment at the proximal end of the catheter has a feature which is larger than that of the inner diameter of the sheath, it is necessary to have a tear-away sheath that can be split away from the catheter as the sheath is being removed from the patient. An example of such a tear-away, or splittable or peelable, sheath, with dilator is set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 6,796,991, which is depicted herein in PRIOR ART
A sheath is generally constructed with a hub at its proximal end. This hub serves as a handle, a mating point for a dilator, and a flat surface to aid in the prevention of blood loss or contamination. When a sheath needs to be split apart in order to be successfully withdrawn from the body while leaving the catheter in place, the hub will also have to be split apart in order to clear the catheter. Preferably, the hub will split along the same lines as the sheath. To accomplish this, the hub must be designed with reveals or other weaknesses along two longitudinal lines aligned with the weaknesses in the sheath. Some previous examples of these weaknesses are tabs or webs which connect two halves of the hub, or recesses in the material comprising the hub. The weaknesses in the hub will help the inserting physician to break apart the hub in line with the tear seams on the sheath.
Another important facet of the hub is a set of tabs or wings that protrude from the center. These tabs not only help the inserting physician to align, insert and withdraw the sheath, but also to pull the sheath so that the sheath can be removed from around a catheter while still leaving the catheter in place. There are a number of different tab configurations, but it is important to have one which allows for easy maneuverability, control, and leverage. One design includes a hub wherein the tabs protrude from the hub perpendicular to a plane which includes the tear seams in the sheath and the longitudinal axis of the sheath. In this design, the tabs are diametrically opposed from each other and are spaced in such a way that when the tabs are grasped and pulled apart from each other, the sheath and its hub will split down the middle. Another desirable feature of the tabs is that the tabs provide leverage for breaking apart the hub in a manner that does not cause trauma to the incision in the body.
During insertion, especially in the time between the removal of the dilator from the sheath and the insertion of the catheter through the sheath, it is possible for blood loss through the sheath, or the introduction of contaminants or air through the sheath and into the vessel. For this reason, it is desirable that measures be taken to prevent blood, air or contaminants from traveling through the sheath. In the past, inserting physicians have simply held their thumb over the opening in the proximal end of the sheath; however, a more permanent and reliable means for preventing blood, air or contaminants from traveling through the sheath is desirable. It is therefore desirable for the hub to include a valve located in the sheath. Such a valve would facilitate the insertion of objects such as a catheter, dilator or syringe through the sheath while restricting blood loss and reducing the chance of contaminants entering the patient's bloodstream when the sheath is not engaged with a dilator or a catheter.
In the case where a sheath does not have a small diameter or a narrow point, the dilator is often used to aid in the insertion of the sheath. The dilator has a long tubular section, the outside diameter of which is slightly smaller than the inside diameter of the sheath. The dilator also has a pointed tip on its distal end and a hollow center, which runs along the entire length of the dilator. The dilator is inserted into the body with the guidewire running through its center, thereby allowing the tip of the dilator to follow the guidewire to the place that is to be catheterized. On its proximal end, the dilator may have a hub. Like the hub of the sheath, this hub can also serve a number of purposes, such as providing a stable handle to aid in guiding the dilator into the vein, and as a mechanism which can mate with the sheath hub to form a locked connection.
In PRIOR ART
It is desired to provide a hemostasis valve for a splittable sheath, and to provide a sheath assembly with hemostasis valve and sheath hub for use therewith, that are splittable for facilitating removal of the sheath from about an inserted catheter.
The present invention is a tearaway sheath assembly having a splittable sheath tube and a splittable hub affixed thereto, with the hub being at the proximal end of the sheath assembly, the sheath tube extending to a smaller diameter distal sheath end, a passageway extending through the assembly from the proximal end to the distal end and defining a longitudinal axis therethrough. The sheath tube includes opposed frangible seams therealong to facilitate peeling or splitting during the tearaway procedure.
The assembly of the present invention also includes a splittable hemostasis valve seal contained and affixed within the hub. The hub comprises two opposing sections joined to each other at frangible joints or webs until intentionally split apart, so that the hub remains an integral one-piece unit until split by the practitioner after insertion of the catheter into a patient's vasculature has been accomplished, with a grippable wing joined to each hub section for handling and for initiating splitting in a manner known in the art. The hub also provides distinct opposing gaps between the two opposing sections that are joined at frangible sections within the gaps, where the gaps are aligned with opposed frangible seams of the sheath tube, so that upon splitting of the hub by the practitioner, the sheath tube also splits apart as the tearaway procedure continues. A valve seal contained within the proximal end of the hub is also splittable when the hub is intentionally split but otherwise remains intact to provide hemostasis; the valve is selectively openable prior to splitting to permit insertion therethrough of a dilator and later of a catheter forming a seal therewith and therearound, but otherwise remains closed to prevent blood effusion.
In a preferred embodiment, the splittable valve is of a duckbill type and has an elongate structure with distal and proximal ends, the duckbill structure being disposed at its distal end, and comprising a pair of angled converging side walls, and includes a slit partially across the converging ends of the side walls and preferably through the axial center of the valve. Proximally of the slit distal end, the valve transitions to a cylindrical or tubular structure at its proximal end. Preferably, a cap is securable to the proximal end of the sheath hub to secure the valve in a tubular proximal end portion of the hub; and, further, the cap is preferably comprised of two separate parts separated along a radial aligned with the gaps of the hub and the seams of the sheath tube with each half affixed to a respective section of the hub at the proximal end, to prevent inhibiting the splitting procedure by the practitioner.
The hub of the sheath assembly of the present invention includes a valve-containing proximal portion adjacent its proximal end, and include a distal portion that is affixed to a proximal end of the sheath tube. The two opposing sections of the hub have opposing gaps spacing them apart, but have frangible sections within the gaps to maintain the two opposing hub sections joined to each other until intentionally split. The opposing gaps are aligned with the frangible seams of the sheath tube. Preferably, the frangible sections are located at a transition portion axially between the proximal hub portion and the distal hub portion and at the distal end of the valve-containing proximal portion where the hub diameter narrows, and comprise thin web sections.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein and constitute part of this specification, illustrate the presently preferred embodiments of the invention, and, together with the general description given above and the detailed description given below, serve to explain the features of the invention. In the drawings:
In the drawings, like numerals indicate like elements throughout. Certain terminology is used herein for convenience only and is not to be taken as a limitation on the present invention. The terms “distal” and “proximal” refer, respectively, to directions closer to and away from the patient. The terminology includes the words specifically mentioned, derivatives thereof and words of similar import. The embodiments illustrated below are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed. These embodiments are chosen and described to best explain the principle of the invention and its application and practical use and to enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the invention.
In PRIOR ART
Sheath assembly 100 of the present invention is illustrated in
Now referring to
Splittable valve seal 150 will now be described with reference to
Cap 180 preferably comprises two completely separate but identical halves 182, for securing valve 150 within valve-receiving cavity 130 of hub 110, and are bonded or fused to the hub. Cap halves 182, when affixed in place to the proximal end of the hub, are separated by gaps 184 aligned with gaps 122 of hub 110 and seams 108 of sheath tube 102 and V-grooves 170 and slits 166 of valve 150. Cap 180 defines a passageway 186 extending therethrough from a beveled lead-in at the cap's proximal end, with passageway 186 sufficiently large in inner diameter for a dilator and a catheter to be movably inserted therethrough. Cap 180 includes an outer flange at the proximal end defining an outer seating recess 188, within which is received flange 132 of hub 110. An outer cylindrical wall 190 extends distally to an end portion 192 that is associated with proximal seating recess 172 of valve 150. An inner cylindrical wall 194 along passageway 186 is spaced inwardly from outer cylindrical wall 190 to define a deep seating recess 196 associated with the proximal end portion of cylindrical wall 160 of valve 150.
The interrelationship of the various associated portions of the hub, valve and cap is best explained with respect to
At the proximal end 120 of hub 110, seating flange 132 projects proximally to be received into outer seating recess 188 of cap 180. Bonding or fusing of cap 180 to hub 110 joins the facing surfaces of seating flange 132, outer seating recess 188, the outside surface of outer cylindrical wall 190 and the inside surface of cylindrical wall 126 of hub 110, and proximal ledge 140 around seating flange 132 and the distal face 198 of the outer flange of the cap. Cap halves 182 are affixed to hub 110 in a manner that compresses the seating flange 168 of valve 150 and secures it in place while establishing a seal between the valve and both the cap halves and the hub.
It can be seen in
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes could be made to the embodiments described above without departing from the broad inventive concept thereof. It is understood, therefore, that this invention is not limited to the particular embodiments disclosed, but it is intended to cover modifications within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.
The present application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/936,795 filed Jun. 22, 2007.
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