AU620523B2 - Improvements in or relating to retention devices - Google Patents

Description

AUSTRALIA 652 PATENTS ACT 1952 Form COMPLETE SPECIFICATION

(ORIGINAL)

FOR OFFICE USE Short Title: Int. Cl: Application Number: Lodged: I Complete Specification-Lodged: Accepted: Lapsed: Published: S Priority: Related Art: 0 TO BE COMPLETED BY APPLICANT Name of Applicant: CARTER HOLT HARVEY PLASTIC PRODUCTS GROUP LIMITED Address of Applicant: TE RAPA ROAD

HAMILTON

NEW ZEALAND Actual Inventor: Address for Service: GRIFFITH HACK CO., 601 St. Kilda Road, Melbourne, Victoria 3004, Australia.

I Complete Specification for the invention entitled: IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO RETENTION DEVICES The following statement is a full description of this invention including the best method of performing it known to me:- This invention relates to retention device? for removably retaining an object in a passage or cavity, and.

is intended particularly though not solely to provide a device which can be removably retained in a body cavity or passage, such as within the digestive or reproductive i4 systems of an animal, for example for veterinary or reproduction control purposes.

ji It is an object of the invention to provide a retention device for removable retention in a passage or cavity which Pitt S* will at least provide the public with a useful choice.

Accordingly, in one aspect, the invention consists in a retention device for removable retention in a passage or cavity, comprising: a pair of bifurcated members each having a pair of resilient movable branch members the i branch members of one bifurcated member being movably connected to the branch members of the other bifurcated member to form a diamond in one configuration of the pair; and an operating member connected or associated with one of said bifurcated members; said bifurcated member being i displaceabla between at least two relative configurations, i'l a first configuration in which a first one of said t bifurcated members is substantially nested inside the other 4J of said bifurcated members foi: insertion purposes, and a second configuration being a Zterally extended configuration in which parts of said bifurcated members are resiliently expanded to bear in use against walls of a -2- '1 9, 94 4 9 Ca a.I Cs A L LI 1- I selected passage or cavity to retain the device therein and said device is laterally compressible so as to be insertable into and removable from said passage or cavity, said device being displaceable between said configurations by use of said operating member.

To those skilled in the art to which the invention relates, many changes in construction and widely differing embodiments and applications of the invention will suggest themselves without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. The disclosures and the descriptW., herein are purely illustrative and are not intended to be in any sense limiting.

One preferred form of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 shows a device in accordance with the invention in an open or diamond configuration; Figure 2 shows the device of Figure 1 in an insertion configuration when laterally compressed for insertion into a selected passage or cavity; and Figure 3 shows the device of Figures 1 and 2 in a retention configuration so as to be retained in the passage or cavity.

Referring now to the figures, a device for retention in a cavity or passage, such as in a body cavity or passage of -3animals such as cattle or pigs, iS provided and shown in Figure 1. The retention device comprises a pair of resilient movable bifurcated members, for example or shaped members 1 and 2 which are movably preferably resiliently interconnected at the open ends of the or I for example by interconnections 3; and an operating Imember 4 is attached to or demountably associated with the junction or closed end 5 of the bifurcated member 2.

Bifurcated member 1 has two preferably resiliently flexible branches 6, and bifurcated member 2 has two preferably boo boo resiliently flexible branches 8. The branches 6 are resiliently interconnected with one another at a junction 7 q. forming the closed end of bifurcated member 1 and the branches 8 are resiliently interconnected with each other at the junction 5 or closed end of bifurcated member 2.

Branches 8 of bifurcated member 2 are suitably relatively shorter than equivalent branches 6 of bifurcated member 1 Sto enable nesting as shown in Figure 2.

The retention device in use may be associated with or jform part of a device for veterinary purposes and may then include some other functional portion such as a known idevice 9 having zones impregnated with a particular pharmaceutical to be dispensed to an animal,and having foldable legs 10 or any other desired functional portion.

The device may be moulded for example of a suitable plastics material which may be moulded in the configuration -4- IC w I

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shown in Figure 1 (referred to herein as the second configuration), and preferably comprises a skeleton 11 of a harder but still flexibly resilient material such as nylon or polypropeylene onto which a drug carrying matrix 12 of e.g. silicone or EVA is applied. Such a device 9 is disclosed in Patent Specifications GB2154875A and US4678463 which are incorporated herein by reference. Parts or all 1 of branches 6 and 8 and parts or all of interconnections 3 are preferably coated with a cushioning layer 15 which is preferably a continuation of or of the same composition as

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V the drug carrying matrix 12.

ii When it is desired to insert the device into a passage or cavity of an animal eg. the vagina of a pig, the device may be folded, from the moulded second configuration shown i in Figure 1 in which the interconnection 3 of the bifurcated members 1 and 2 are spaced apart and so that the I1 D, bifurcated members 1 and 2 are in a diamond configuration

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opposite one another into the retention configuration shown i in Figure 2 by applying force to the operating member k towards the bifurcated members substantially along the longitudinal axis of the device, in the direction indicated i by the arrow 16, so that the junction 5 of the bifurcated it member 2 is forced towards the junction 7 of the opposite facing bifurcated member 1. Due to the pivoting and preferably resilience of the bifurcated members and of the connections 3 and 4 between them, initially the paired 4.

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branches of the two bifurcated menmbers are spread apart by application of such force, and when the relatively shorter branches 8 of member 2 are in line in the space between the interconnections 3, sprung over that line and nest with the branches 6 of the facing bifurcated member i, as sho%,n in Figures 2 and 3.

The parts of the skeleton 11 forming the inter-connecting portions 3 are preferably provided as outwardly curved strips or portions of resilient material as shown to facilitate this springing over.

Once in the insertion configuration shown in Figure 2, the device can be laterally compressed by pinching them together as indicated by the arrows 16, and the device 9, may also be folded. The entire device may be contained in this folded form in an applicator eg. of tubular form as shown in GB2154875A, TJS4678463. The device is then inserted lengthwise into a selected passage or cavity, for example into a body cavity of an animal, and the applicator is then withdrawn. The branches 6 and 8 of the bifurcated members 1 and 2, W' n the insertion configuration shown in Figure 2, are biased to extend laterally from the longitudinal axis of the device, which can be defined by the longitudinal axis of the operating member 5, as shown in Figure 3. When the applicator is withdrawn, the branches tend to adopt the laterally extended retention configuration shown in Figure 3 and the device is thus -6retained against expulsion from the passage or cavity by for example muscular contractions, as the bifurcated members and/or the connecting portion 3 bear against the walls of the passage or cavity offering resistance to i jexpulsion.

When it is desired to remove the device, the extended operating member 5 can be grasped and pulled in the direction indicated by the arrow 12 which reverses the springing over procedure, the bifurcated members 1 and 2 too: resuming their open and opposite facing configuration as b.

shown in Figure i. Continued pulling on the operating

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member 5 tends to lead the device out of the passage or r cavity, with extension lengthwise and narrowing the width of the diamond shape of the retention the device laterally compressing by closing of the branches 6 and 8 of bifurcated members 1 and 2 towards each other.

Thus it can be seen that a retention device is provided by the invention which is readily operated so as to be securely retained in a selected passage or cavity and which can also be readily converted into a configuration allowing I withdrawal from the passage or cavity. The device is also n simple to make and operate.

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Claims (4)

1. 2. A retention device as claimed in claim 1 wherein said operating member is connected or associated with a junction between branches of said one bifurcated member and the -8- branches of said one bifurcated member are shorter than the branches of said other bifurcated member.
2. 3. A retention device as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the flexible movable connections between said branches of said bifurcated members are coated with a cushioning layer.
3. 4. A retention device as claim in any one of the preceding claims wherein said retention device is associated with or forms part of a device for veterinary purposes. A retention device as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein said branches are flexibly resilient. I 6. A retention device as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein said branch members of one bifurcated member are resiliently connected to corresponding branch members of the other bifurcated member.
4. 7. A retention device when constructed arranged and J A operable substantially as herein describec with reference to and as illustrated by the accompanying drawings. DATED THIS 28TH DAY OF JUNE 1990 CARTER HOLT HARVEY PLASTIC PRODUCTS GROUP LIMITED By its Patent Attorneys: GRIFFITH HACK CO., Fellows Institute of Patent Attorneys of Australia -9-