The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 12, 2003
Filed:
Sep. 19, 2001
Michael E. Hovanes, Redmond, WA (US);
Don S. Schmitt, Wauwatosa, WA (US);
Instrumed, Inc., Woodinville, WA (US);
Abstract
A system and method of controlling the pressure within a pressure cuff of a surgical tourniquet so as selectively to occlude blood flow within a portion of a limb of a patient, wherein a sensor determines when flow past the tourniquet is occurring so that corrective action may be taken, such as by increasing the pressure in the tourniquet or by notifying an operator of the flow past the tourniquet. The present invention may use an acoustic sensor to detect Korotkoff sounds indicating incipient blood flow past the tourniquet. When such signals are detected, the tourniquet controller may either incrementally increase the pressure in the tourniquet, or if a threshold would be exceeded by such an increase, signal an alarm indicative of the blood flow.