Sherwood Medical Company

Robert D George

Paul Sherlock

Robert D Banning

Georgio Di Palma

Christopher J Edwards

In a method of radiation sterilization of medical articles, replacing the oxygen in the sterilization package with nitrogen prior to sterilizing prevents most of the brittleness and discoloration in the articles.

Method of sterilizing medical articles

A collapsible and flexible urethral drainage catheter having a flexible tubular body portion containing a drainage lumen and an inflation lumen and having a distal tip portion with a flexibility different from the body portion with a distal end closed by an elongated cylindrical plug member sealed thereto having a segment of the wall thereof adapted when inserted into the distal end of the body portion to mate in intimate contact with the inner wall of the body portion and extending a sufficient distance into the body portion to stiffen the distal tip portion thereof, said drainage lumen communicating with drain ports in the elongated plug member and the distal tip portion of said body member and said inflation lumen communicating with an inflation cuff surrounding a portion of said distal tip portion of the body member.

Collapsible urethral catheter

An irrigation syringe is provided which includes a barrel having an axially extending annular groove open at the proximal end for receiving the connector portion of a resilient compressible syringe bulb in tight frictional fitting relation. The syringe barrel is adapted to receive, instead of the bulb, a plunger having a piston that may be inserted into the barrel to provide a piston-type syringe so that the barrel can be used either with a syringe bulb or a syringe plunger. The inner wall of the groove has a plurality of slots so that if the syringe barrel is employed as a funnel, liquid will flow from the groove into the barrel.

Syringe

A drain tube for urine is connected at its distal end to a urine meter. The tube has a predetermined point of weakness so that when the meter is lifted to dump the urine therefrom, the tube kinks off at the point of weakness, thereby preventing passage of urine from the meter back up the drain tube during dumping. The point of weakness is formed by simultaneously stretching and heating a section of the tube while the inner diameter of the tube is held constant on a mandrel.

Anti-reflux drain tube and drainage meter combination

A wound drainage device is provided which includes a manually operable suction pump having inlet and outlet ports, and a pliable fluid storage bag having a pair of plastic sheets in face-to-face contact and an inlet. The pump inlet port is adapted to be connected to a wound suction catheter for removing drainage fluid from the wound. The pump outlet port is connectable to storage bag inlet for discharging drainage fluid into the storage bag without disconnecting the suction catheter. The bag has an upper foldable portion between the main storage portion and the bag inlet to close fluid communication to the bag and can serve as an added protection against drainage fluid flowing back to the suction pump. The storage bag can be used to receive drainage fluid and thereby provide a relatively large storage capacity without requiring a relatively large suction pump.

Growing community of inventors

Lake St. Louis, MO, United States of America

Robert D George