Patent Application
20140200485
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an umbilical cord collection device and method of using same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Anyone who has visited a hospital surgical room in recent times, knows very well the painstaking precautions taken to prevent unwanted exposure to patient bodily fluids including blood. Notwithstanding the inherent dangers, it is necessary for a patient's bodily fluid to be sampled. Umbilical cord blood must be sampled to ascertain blood type as well as Rh factor. It may even be necessary to preserve an infant's umbilical cord blood for the stem cells such blood contains.
Historically, umbilical cord blood was collected in one of two ways. First, a hypodermic needle could be inserted into the umbilical cord to withdraw the necessary blood. The blood would then be transferred to a rubber stoppered collection tube. Second, the free end of the umbilical cord, that not attached to the placenta, is held, over the opening of a test tube and the cord blood allowed to drip or drain into such test tube. The problem with both these types of procedures were that it could not eliminate the hazard that operating/deliver room personnel might be exposed to the cord blood which might be contaminated with all sorts of infectious diseases.
In an attempt to provide a safer and more efficient way to collect umbilical cord blood, Michael D. Grossman, et al, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,915,384, issued Jun. 29, 1999, for Medical Body Fluid Sampler Device, and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,342,328, issued Aug. 30, 1994, disclosed a funnel shaped apparatus which allowed cord blood to collect and gravity drain into a collection tube. Anyone that has had to gravity flow any type of fluid, let alone fluid that may contain body cells and tissue, knows the problems inherent in this approach, i.e., the flow becomes restricted. Once flow is restricted, most likely the sample of blood will be lost and/or hospital personnel exposed to the blood when attempts are made to remove the restriction.
Peter Yong in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2006/0039833, published Feb. 23, 2006, and U.S. Patent Publication No. 2007/0025886, published Feb. 1, 2007, for Biological Specimen Collection, Transportation, and Dispensing System, in FIG. 81 discloses an apparatus for the collection of umbilical cord blood. The primary emphasis of the Yong disclosure was for use in urine collection. In order to collect urine, i.e., allow a user to urinate into the collection device, one would need a collection device that was relatively tall and narrow as is shown in Yong. In lay person's vernacular, one would need a cup. It is not necessary that the Yong cup be stable when placed on a table because that is not when the sample is being collected. As seen in FIG. 81 of Yong, the needle used to withdraw the collected umbilical cord blood is long running almost the entire height of the cup. The tube, identified as item 762 in Yong, into which the cord blood is drawn, would no doubt increase the instability of the Yong cup, shifting the center of gravity of the cup far to the left. One can clearly see in FIG. 81 of Yong that the cup would surely fall over in its depicted embodiment. In Yong however, being primarily used to collect urine, the stability of the device was not an issue.
Charles David Cawood, in two US Patents, U.S. Pat. No. 4,557,274 issued Dec. 10, 1985, for Midstream Urine Collection and U.S. Pat. No. 5,766;136 issued Jun. 16, 1998 for Midstream Urine Collector with Deflection Shield, discloses a device which arguably could be used for umbilical cord blood collection. Like Yong, since the primary emphasis is for urine collection, the device in Cawood must be tall and narrow. As can be seen in FIG. 6 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,557,274, once urine is collected, tube 29 is forced down onto needle 27. This requires force and without the legs shown in FIG. 6, the collection apparatus would surely tip over. The legs shown, however, cannot overcome the inherent instability of the Cawood apparatus.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a simple, efficient and stable way to collect cord blood while reducing the potential for exposure to cord blood. Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description when viewed in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which set forth certain embodiments of the invention.
The detailed embodiments of the present invention are disclosed herein. It should be understood, however, that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the invention, which may be embodied in various forms. Therefore, the details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as the basis for the claims and as a basis for teaching one skilled in the art how to make and/or use the invention.
As can be seen in
While any modern day method of construction would could be used to manufacture the apparatus of the present invention, the use of injection molding results in a lightweight, one piece body (1) with no means required to attach the cylindrical receiving receptacle (4) to said body. In other types of manufacture, the cylindrical receiving receptacle (4) can be attached to the body using many different types of means commonly known in the field such as glue.
At the bottom of the funnel shaped interior surfaces of the body (1) is the lower outlet (12). Umbilical cord blood is allowed to drain into the upper inlet and flow down and out the lower outlet (12). Blood exits the lower outlet (12) through the channel (2). At the end of the channel is a passageway containing needle (3). The needle (3) can be attached to the channel (2) using any conventional method such as glue.
Shown in
The cylindrical receiving receptacle (4) is shown in
Blood from an umbilical cord generally does not flow fast, however, it can and it can also splatter. For this reason, in another embodiment of the present invention shown in
In still another embodiment of the present invention, as shown in
While the preferred embodiments have been shown and described, it will be understood that there is no intent to limit the invention by such disclosure, but rather, is intended to cover all modifications and alternate constructions falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.
This application claims the benefit of the filing date for Provisional Application No. 61/5870645, filed Jan. 16, 2012.
