Components for medical circuits

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9872967-B2
Application number	US-201615265735-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 14, 2016
Priority date	Jun 22, 2010
Publication date	Jan 23, 2018
Grant date	Jan 23, 2018

Abstract

Condensation or “rain-out” is a problem in medical circuits and previous attempts to manage and/or prevent rain-out have resulted in relatively expensive and/or difficult to manufacture medical circuit components. The subject patent provides an improved medical circuit component for managing rain-out. In particular the component may be an improved breathing tube, or insufflation system limb comprising a helically corrugated tube preferably incorporating a heater wire.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A component comprising:
a corrugated tube wherein the corrugation profile comprises a plurality of alternating outer crests and inner troughs, each of the plurality of outer crests including local troughs comprising an inward dip,
wherein the corrugated tube is a medical tube configured to provide a pathway between components of a medical circuit,
wherein the corrugated tube transitions from a helical corrugation profile to an annular corrugation profile, and
wherein the annular corrugation profile includes angled channels to allow the first heater wire and second heater wire to step over each of the annular rings of the annular corrugation profile;

a first heater wire associated with at least one inward dip of the plurality of outer crests; and
a second heater wire associated with at least one of the plurality of inner troughs.

2. The component of claim 1 , wherein the first and second heater wires have different heating densities.

3. The component of claim 1 further comprising a sheath that covers the component and the first and second heater wires, the sheath configured to retain the first and second heater wires.

4. The component of claim 3 , wherein the sheath is configured to trap air within the plurality of inner troughs and the inward dips.

5. The component of claim 3 , wherein the sheath is bonded to the corrugated tube at least one of the plurality outer crests.

6. The component of claim 1 further comprising a sensor wire that is associated with at least one inward dip of the plurality of crests or at least one of the plurality of inner troughs.

7. The component of claim 6 , wherein the sensor wire is associated with the same inward dip as the first heater wire.

8. The component of claim 6 , wherein the sensor wire is associated with a different inward dip than the first heater wire.

9. The component of claim 6 , wherein the sensor wire is associated with the same inner trough as the second heater wire.

10. The component of claim 6 , wherein the sensor wire is associated with a different inner trough than the second heater wire.

11. The component of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first heater wire or the second heater wire is also a sensor wire.

12. The component of claim 1 , wherein the corrugated tube comprises a wall with uniform thickness.

13. The component of claim 1 , wherein the corrugated tube comprises a wall with variable thickness, the wall comprising a maximum thickness and a minimum thickness wherein the maximum thickness is no more than three times the minimum thickness.

14. The component of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of outer crests comprise a maximum outer and inner radius of the corrugated tube and each of the plurality of inner troughs comprise a minimum inner and outer radius of the corrugated tube.

15. The component of claim 1 , wherein the corrugated tube is formed in a helical manner.

16. The component of claim 15 , wherein the corrugated tube comprises a plurality of helical corrugations.

17. The component of claim 15 , wherein a helix of the helical corrugated tube comprises a varying pitch along the length of the corrugated tube.

Assignees

• Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Ltd

Inventors

• Sims David John
• Garcia Enrico Alvarez
• Graham Peter Kenneth

Classifications

• A61M13/00

  Insufflators for therapeutic or disinfectant purposes {, i.e. devices for blowing a gas, powder or vapour into the body (hand-held units in which gas flow is produced by muscular energy at the moment of use B05B11/062)} · CPC title

• A61M16/1095 Primary

  in the connecting tubes · CPC title

• B29L2031/7542

  Catheters · CPC title

• F16L11/118

  having arrangements for particular purposes, e.g. electrically conducting · CPC title

• F16L53/008

  Mechanical Engineering · mapped topic