Other

Richard R Jackson

John Noel Williams

Anesthetizing plastic or other drug delivery polymer system including a hydrophobic polymer and a drug that has an aromatic ring.

Anesthetizing plastics, drug delivery plastics, and related medical products, systems and methods

A drug delivery system comprising propathenone or lidocaine dissolved in thermoplastic resin is shown to be useful for prolonged release antiahrrythmia medications. More generally, a compound with topical anesthetic and plasticizing properties, or another drug having a similar structures containing an aromatic ring, is dissolved in polymeric material. Extrusion, co-extrusion, coating and diffusion techniques to form orally digestible granules, fibers, films and tubes such as endotracheal tubes, drainage tubes and other medical devices with the material containing drug are disclosed. Diffusion techniques in which the drug diffuses into the thermoplastic is also disclosed. A hydrophobic anesthetic or similar compound such as the base form of lidocaine or propathenone is used which is more soluble in the polymeric material than in water. Prilocaine base and dibucaine base are also used in examples. A water soluble form of the drug, achievable by reacting the base form of the drug dissolved in the polymer, is provided, e.g. at an exposed surface, to enable rapid onset of anesthesia or dosage. Balloons, films and extruded cross sections are shown. Barrier and metering layers control the direction and rate of application of the anesthetic or drug. Compresses and wound dressings containing thermoplastic constituents in which a drug is dissolved provide prolonged administration of anesthetics and other drugs. An ointment or other fluid containing an ionic surfactant assists the transfer of the drug from the thermoplastic to the body.

Tissue-numbing anesthetic articles

A compound with topical anesthetic and plasticizing properties is dissolved in polymeric material of a medical device. Extrusion, co-extrusion and coating techniques to form endotracheal tubes, drainage tubes and other medical devices with the topical anesthetic are disclosed. A hydrophobic anesthetic compound such as the base form of lidocaine is used which is more soluble in the polymeric wall material of the tube than in water. As a result, the anesthetic compound is transferred only to the contiguous tissue of the body passage and not disseminated systemically through the aqueous fluids. The anesthetic compound diffuses to the surface of body tissue touched by the tube where its anesthetic effect suppresses discomfort and undesired rejection reactions. Since the anesthetic compound is thus dispensed only to the contiguous tissue of the body passage, the quantity of anesthetic stored is sufficient to maintain effective anesthesia for hours or days, and undesired effects of a general dissemination through the body are avoided. Prilocaine base and dibucaine base are also used in examples. A water soluble form of topical anesthetic, achievable by reacting anesthetic base dissolved in the polymer, is provided, e.g. at an exposed surface, to enable rapid onset of anesthesia. Balloons, films and extruded cross sections are shown. Barrier and metering layers are shown to control the direction and rate of application of the anesthetic. Methods of introduction of the anesthetic into solution in the polymer are disclosed.

Medical devices having local anesthetic effect and methods of their

A compound with topical anesthetic properties is incorporated in polymeric material making up the wall of a tube of intubation devices for introduction into body passages of an animal. A hydrophobic anesthetic compound is used which is more soluble in the polymeric wall material of the tube than in water. Because of the hydrophobic properties of the anesthetic compound, a quantity of anesthetic compound can be stored in solution in the polymeric wall material of the tube and this stored anesthetic compound is not washed out by the aqueous fluid which is present in the body passage. As a result, the anesthetic compound is transferred only to the contiguous tissue of the body passage and not disseminated systemically through the aqueous fluids. When the tube is in place within a body passage the anesthetic compound diffuses to the surface of body tissue touched by the tube where its anesthetic effect suppresses discomfort and undesired rejection reactions. Since the anesthetic compound is thus dispensed only to the contiguous tissue of the body passage, the quantity of anesthetic compound stored in the tube wall is sufficient to maintain effective anesthesia of the body passage for hours or days, and undesired effects of a general dissemination through the body are avoided.

Intubation devices with local anesthetic effect for medical use

Apparatus for delivering conditioned gas to be breathed by a living being includes a humidifier for conditioning gas provided from a source, inhalation conduit means for conducting an inhalant flow of conditioned gas from the humidifier to the living being, and exhalation conduit means for conducting away gas exhaled by the living being, the inhalation conduit means having a first and a second conduit each extending between and communicating with the humidifier and a delivery point near the living being, gas propulsion apparatus for propelling a carrier flow of gas within the first conduit from the conditioner to the delivery point and within the second conduit from the delivery point to the humidifier, the first and second conduits and the gas propulsion apparatus being adapted to maintain a circulating flow of conditioned gas that includes the inhalant flow and the carrier flow through a loop defined by the first and second conduits, the delivery point, and the humidifier, the demand of the patient being taken from the circulating flow at the delivery point, whereby the gas is conditioned to substantially the same extent at the delivery point as at the humidifier.

Delivering breathable gas

According to the present invention, an airway humidifier for directly humidifying the air flow requirement of a respiratory tract during the inspiration phase of a breathing cycle is provided, which comprises a nest of relatively large bore, thin wall air transmitting elongated hollow fibers terminating at an output end that is adapted to communicate the merged flow through a tube to the respiratory tract, a water chamber surrounding said fibers and having sufficient rigidity to resist collapse when subjected to negative operational water pressure, a water source for water heated to about 105.degree. F. (40.degree. C.) and a water pump connected to said chamber and said source and adapted to maintain said chamber filled with water under negative pressure, said fibers having an internal diameter of the order of 0.050 inch, and being present in sufficient number and length to enable the peak air flow rate of said requirement to proceed through said nest with a characteristic pressure drop of less than 5 centimeters of water, the walls of said fibers having a wettable surface and under said negative pressure water conditions being permeable to water vapor and impermeable to liquid water, and the aggregate wetted surface area of said fibers being sufficient to humidify the peak flow rate of said requirement of said respiratory tract, whereby pulsing air flow into the respiratory tract can be humidified by a compact, closely-located unit.

Airway humidifier for the respiratory tract

A medical suction control unit of the type operated by occlusion of a control port to prevent entry of atmospheric pressure into a control chamber, in which the valving element is free to move bodily between open and closed positions in response to the closing and opening of the control port, with the vacuum bleed passage, which enables air to be withdrawn from the control chamber, establishing flow around the side of the valving element. The vacuum bleed passage is shown formed by a channel in one or the other of the contacting surfaces, at the point where the valve element rests upon a surface of the housing. The valve element is shown in the form of an elastomeric disk which has sufficient structural strength to resist detrimental deformation under vacuum, and which has sufficient thickness to guide itself in its bodily movement. In one form the unit employs a plug-form member attached to the valve element and entering the intake chamber to reduce objectionable noise. The unit can be assembled by mere insertation of the free-floating valve element and snap-fit of a cap into sealing relationship with the housing, or by indenting the walls of the housing to confine the free moving valve element within the housing.

Suction control

For determining blood pressure a cannula, insertable through a needle into the bloodstream, locates a flaccid, relaxed wall directly in the bloodstream. The relaxed nature of this wall allows direct transmission of the blood pressure to a neutral liquid in the cannula. The cannula transmits this liquid pressure out of the blood vessel to the remote pressure responsive indicator. Thus blood pressure can be directly measured without need of administering anticoagulants to maintain pressure-transmitting conditions.

Blood pressure measuring catheter

In a ready-to-fly kite having a central, longitudinal stiffening element and a flexible kite body that defines a pair of flexible wings, the axial stiffening element is comprised of a plurality of elongated stiff sections. These sections are connected together to fold relative to one another at a joint from an extended position in which the sections are axially aligned, end to end, to a folded position in which the sections lie side by side. The respective sections of the flexible kite body that correspond to the stiffener sections are free from axial restraint to permit folding of the flexible kite body sections with the stiffener sections. Also the flexible kite body sections are free from lateral restraint to permit rolling of the kite body sections together about the folded group of stiffener sections to provide a compact portable collapsed kite package.

Collapsible kite

A self-sterilizing humidifier for air to be breathed, of the type having endless porous media driven to be progressively immersed in a receptacle. Means are shown for periodically providing throughout the effective volume of water in the receptacle heated water at a temperature above about 180.degree. F while the media drive is actuated, the heated water being sufficient to progressively expose the media to bacteria-killing conditions. In one embodiment a heater chamber automatically discharges a charge of water heated above about 180.degree. F into the receptacle. In one such case a thermal actuator has sensitive parts exposed to water in both the heater chamber and the receptacle, the actuator releasing the charge when water in the receptacle lies below its sensitive part, and water in the heater chamber has reached or exceeds the selected high temperature. In another embodiment the heater element is in the receptacle and is periodically energized to maintain bacteria-killing conditions while the blower in the air flow path is de-energized to reduce evaporative cooling of the media and water during the sterilization interval.

Self-sterilizing humidifier

A humidifier for air or gas flow to the lungs heats the flow and saturates it with water vapor. Heated water injected into a humidifying passage flows down multiple paths in the gas stream. Heating of the water is shown on a localized basis at sterilizing temperature while over-all temperature is kept lower using a heater combined with the pump of the injection line. All surfaces of the humidifier are shown exposed to the water; the gas outlet connection is shown communicating with a space between the water paths and the reservoir, and directed toward the reservoir; and the humidifying passage is shown as a tubular column holding a mass of tangled inert filaments.

Humidifier for air to be inhaled

The connector member which connects a tracheal tube to the source of breathing air incorporates an auxiliary passage having an entrance device for inflating the cuff with the breathing air, the entrance device responding to raised pressure in the connector to admit the breathing air for filling the cuff and responding to decrease in the pressure to close the auxiliary passage at a desired level for retaining sealing pressure in the cuff.

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Swampscott, MA, United States of America

Richard R Jackson