Terraillon

Orthoconcept S.a.

Orthoconcept

Paul Pidoux

Burkhard Mathies

Didier Misse

Claude Guignard

Jean L Prost

For an endoscopic resection or examination of a body cavity or joint where a physiological liquid is pumped at one location to a joint from a feed conduit connected to a feed pump and withdrawn at another location from the joint through a suction conduit connected to a suction pump, this suction pump is operated at a rate corresponding to a generally constant low rate of flow in the suction conduit and the feed pump is operated in accordance with the pressure detected in the joint to maintain the pressure above a predetermined desired level. Furthermore when a tool carrying one end of an auxiliary suction conduit is inserted into the joint so that periodically this conduit can be connected to the pump so that liquid can be withdrawn from the joint through this auxiliary conduit, the method comprises the step of automatically increasing the suction-pump rate when the auxiliary conduit is connected to the suction pump to a predetermined relatively high rate. When the tool includes a blade and a motor operable to move the blade, the method further comprises the step of automatically disconnecting the suction pump from the main suction conduit and to the auxiliary suction conduit and simultaneously increasing the suction-pump rate from the low rate to the high rate when the motor is operated to move the blade.

Circulating a liquid through a joint

The device includes: a set of four strain-gauges mounted on a cantilevered beam, which gauges are electrically connected among themselves in the form of a bridge (9), in a manner such that said bridge produces an output voltage (.DELTA.V) which is a function of the magnitude of the force applied to the beam, when the bridge (9) is supplied with current; a source of voltage (10), designed to supply the bridge (9); an analog-to-digital converter (16), connected to the output of the amplifier (14), with which there is associated a microprocessor (24); and a display unit (13), connected to an output of the microprocessor (24), which is designed to allow the display of a signal that is representative of the magnitude of the force applied to the beam. In order to eliminate the need for auxiliary stabilizing and compensating circuits, required if a high-quality circuit of this type is to be constructed, the analog-to-digital converter (16) is of the two-slope type encompassing switching mechanisms (19, 20) controlled by the microprocessor (24) in order to use the supply voltage (10) as a reference voltage.

Device for measuring the magnitude of a force applied to the free end of

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Bassins, Switzerland

Paul Pidoux