CA1163518A

CA1163518A - Surgical suction device

Info

Publication number: CA1163518A
Application number: CA000377063A
Authority: CA
Inventors: Frederick F. Buechel; Paul A. Witte; Michael J. Pappas
Original assignee: BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING CORP
Current assignee: BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING CORP
Priority date: 1980-05-08
Filing date: 1981-05-07
Publication date: 1984-03-13
Also published as: EP0051643A1; DK3982A; JPS57500769A; WO1981003125A1; EP0051643A4

Abstract

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE

Surgical suction apparatus for applying suction to surgical debris to clear a surgical wound and including structure for clearing any surgical debris lodged in the entrance aperture of the apparatus and which structure may also be used to vary the effective size of the entrance aperture to vary the suction applied to the surgical debris.

Description

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l~ SURGICAL SUCTION APPARA~US

2~BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

3 ll l . Field of t_e_Invention

4 This invention relates to surgical suction apparatus for slclearing a suryical wound of surgical debris, such as, blood, 61 irrigation solutions, fragments of soft and hard (e.g. bone) tissue.
7~ 2. Description of the Prior Art Surgical suction apparatus are routinely used in g,1surgical procedures. A typical prior art surgical suction apparatus includes a suction tube having one end connected to ll,a suction source and the other end serving as an entrance 12 aperture into which surgical debris is sucked to clear a 1 13jjsurgical wound. Clogging or blocking of the surgical suction l4jlapparatus, at the entrance aperture and/or along -the length of l5,1the suction tube, are major problems with the typical prior art 161surgical suction apparatus. Such clogging or blocking results l71 primarily from the cohesion of relatively hard fragments of 18;tissue bound together by fragments of soft tissue. In the course l9l of a typical surgical procedure, there may be several occurrences 20lof such clogging or blocking and each such blockage results in : 21 ll, an unwanted delay of time to clear the apparatus in a situation 221where elapsed time is usually critical.
23l Accordingly, there exists a need in the surgical suction 241 apparatus art of new and improved surgical suction apparatus 251 overcoming the clogging or blocking problem.
26j There exists a furthe~ need in -the surgical suction 27l apparatus art of new and improved surgical suction apparatus 281for varying the size of the entrance aper-ture to vary the 29jsuction applied to surgical debris.
30~ Still further, there exists a need in the surgical suction !
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apparatus art of new and improved surgical suction apparatus for both overcoming the clogging and blocking problem and for varying the suction applied to surgical debris.
A still further problem generally present with typical prior art surgical suction apparatus is that they remain in an open condition during an entire operation including time between actual use when not in the operator's hand. Air is therefore drawn through the surgical suction apparatus at all times there-by attracting bacteria laden air to the immediate vicinity of the operation from remote corners of the operating room where other equipment and observers are sometimes present and which other equipment and observers may not have received attention during pre-operative sterilization.
Accordingly, there exists a further need in the surgical suction apparatus art of new and improved surgical suction apparatus which may be closed or shut-off during periods of non-use.

SU~ARY OF THE INVENTION

.... , . _ _ The invention provides surgical suction apparatus for applying suction to surgical debris to clear a surgical wound, said apparatus for being connected to a suction source, compris-ing: suction means providing an entrance aperture through which said suction is applied to said surgical debris and providing an exit aperture through which surgical debris sucked through said entrance aperture exits said apparatus, and control means includ-ing external cutting means for externally cutting any surgical debris lodged in said entrance aperture to thereby clear said aperture.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGURES 1, 2 and 3 are, respectively, side elevational, 2.

?. 1133~ 18 1 plan and end views of surgical suction apparatus embodying the 2jl present invention;
311 FIGS. 4 and 5 are cross-sectional views showing the actuator 4, means of the surgical suction apparatus of the present invention i .~ l . ~. at its ex-treme rearward and forward positions, respectively; and 6,1 FIG. 6 is an enlarged partial view of the forward end of 7 an internal control tube illustrating the manner in which a 81 plurality of radially disposed suction holes may be of different 10. sizes.

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lIDESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
2 Referring now generally to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, there is shown 31 surgical suction apparatus embodying the present invention and 4 being indicated by general numerical designa-tion 10. Such apparat~ IS
5I may include a hand grip 12 to be gripped by the palm and lower 6 three fingers of a single hand of an opera-tor; an actuator 14 7 mounted slidably on top of the hand grip for sliding, reciprocatinc ~, 8 translating movement with respect thereto; an internal suction 9l tube 16 having its rearward portion secured to the hand grip 12 lOI such as by being threadedly engaged therewith as indicated in 11 FIGS. 4 and 5, and an external con-trol tube 18 coaxially surround-12 ing the internal suction tube 16 and having its rearward portion 13 threadedly secured to the actuator 14 for sliding, reciprocating, 14I~translating movement with the actuator 14 and with respect to 5I~the hand grip 12 and the internal suction tube 16.
16II It will be noted that the suction tube 16 may be terminated 7I¦at its forward end in a generally cylindrical filter 19 defined ~by a plurality of radially disposed suction holes tidentified 191 as 23 in FIG. ~), as shown, which suction holes provide an 201 entrance aperture, indicated by general numerical designation 20, 211 to the surgical suction apparatus 10 and into which entrance 22japerture surgical debris is sucked into the surgical suction 23jlapparatus. Fur-ther, it will be noted that the forward end of the 241Icontrol tube 18 may be terminated in a generally annular cutter 25lblade 21.
`~ 26¦ As may be best seen in FIGS. 1 and 5, the hand grip 12 7jprovides an aperture 22 for receiving the index finger of an 28lloperator's hand, and it will be noted, and as may be best seen 2911in FIGS. 2 and 5, that the actuator 14 provides an aperture 24 1 30~ for receiving the upwardly extending thumb of the operator.
3111 Referring now to FIG. 4, it will be noted that the hand . I
~ 32 grip 12 is provided wi-th a passageway 26 extending therethrough - 33 and that the upper portion o; the passageway is connected to the .; I
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1 `I rearward portion of the suction tube 16 and that the lower 2 portion of the passageway 26 provides an exit aperture, 3 1 indicated by general numerical designation 28, to the surgical 4 1 suction apparatus 10 and through which exit aperture surgical

5 1 debris exits the surgical suction apparatus. The exit aperture

6 ¦ 28 of the surgical suction apparatus 10 is for being connected

7 1 to a suitable suction s~ource (not shown) and it will be fur-ther

8 1 noted that the lower portion of the hand grip 12 defining the exit aperture 28 may be configured as shown to facilitate 10 l~ connection to a flexible hose (not shown) for extending between 11 il the surgical suction apparatus 10 and the suction source.
12 ¦ To understand the method of assembly of the parts of the 13 1 embodiment of the surgical suction apparatus 10 shown, it will 14 be assumed that the hand grip 12, actuator 14, internal suction tube 16 and external control tube 18 are all disassembled.
16 Referring again to FIG. 4, the actuator 14 is first placed over 17 the top of the hand grip 12, it being noted that the middle 18 portion of the actuator is hollow and will be understood that 19 this portion is substantially of an inverted U-shaped, cross sectional configuration, and the rearward portion of the internal 21 suction tube 16 will be inserted through the forward portion of I the actuator 14 to threadedly engage the rearward portion of the 23 1 suction tube 16 with the threaded upper portion of the hand grip 12 defining the upper end of the passageway 26 as shr~n. Then, the I external control tube 18 will be slid coaxially over the internal 27 1 suction tube 16 and the rearward portion of the control tube 18 28 will threadedly engage the threaded forward portion of the ¦ actuator 14 as shown. For operation, a flexible hose then will 29 j be interconnected between the surgical suction apparatus 1~ and 1¦ the suction source as described above.

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~ 3 3 S ~ 8 1 In operation, and referring to FIG. 5, a single hand of the 2 ¦operator will grip the surgical suction apparatus 10 as shown, 3 with the hand grip being gripped by the palm and lower three 4 fingers of the operator's hand, with the lndex finger of the operator's hand extendlng through the aperture 22 and with the 6 ¦ thumb of the operator's hand being extended upwardly through 7 ¦ the aperture 24. The entrance 20 of -the surgical suction apparatu 8 ¦ 20 will then be inserted into a surgical wound and surglcal

9 ¦ debris will be sucked lnto the entrance aperture 20, through the internal suctlon tube 16 and passageway 26 and out the exit 11 aperture 28. Then, the operator will alternately move his thumb 12 forwardly and rearwardly, as indicated by arrow 30 ln FIG. 5, 13 to impart sllding, reciprocating, -translating movemen-t to the 14 actuator 14 and to the external control tube 18 wi~h respect to lS the hand grip 12 and the internal suc-tion tube 16, to cause the 16 forward portion of the external control tube 18 to engage and 17 clear any surgical debris lodged in the entrance aperture 20 18 and to cause the forward portion of the control tube 18 to alternately cover and uncover various ones of the radially 2 disposed suctlon holes to vary the effective size of the . 1 entrance aperture 20 to vary the suction applied to the surgical 22 debris and, if desired, to focus the suction applied to the 23 surgical debris at substantially the forward portio~ of the . 24 cylindrical filter. Upon the surgical suction apparatus of the .~ 5 present invention having the ~orward end o-f the external control 27 tube 18 terminating in -the ànnular cutter blade 21, and upon 28 the above-noted sliding, reciprocating, translating movement being applied to the control tube 18, the cutter blade will q~
. ~, engage and cut any surgical debris lodged in the radially disposec : 30 suction holes to enhance the clearing of the entr~nce aperture 20.
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1, Referring now to FIG. 6, which as noted above is an 2 enlarged partial view of the Eorward end of the internal control 3~ tube 16, it will be understood that in accordance with the 4 further teachings of the present invention, the plurality of radially disposed suction holes 23 defining the entrance 6 aperture 20 may be axially disposed such that the smaller holes 7 1l are more forward of the suction tube 16 and the larger holes 8i are more rearward of the suction tube. Accordingly, it will 91 be understood that upon the control tube 18 being moved forwardly the suction may be focused at the end of the suction tube 16 by exposing only the smaller suction holes 23 or even portions 12,l thereof; conversely, upon the control tube 18 being moved rear- !
13l wardly the number and size of the radially disposed suction 14i holes 23 exposed are increased and the suction provided is 15, accordingly increased. Further, it will be understood that the 16l repetitive forward and rearward movement of the control tube 18 17ll in the normal operation of the surgical suction device of the 18j present invention will create a surging of the air sucked into 19ll the entrance aperture 20 thereby discouraging the build-up of 20jl surgical debris in the internal suction tube 16 and thereby 21lj further reducing the possibility of clogging.
22j Further, it will be understood that upon the operator 23jj moving the actuator 14 to its forwardmost position, thereby 24 1l moving the control tube 18 to its forwardmost position, all of 25 1l the radially disposed suction holes 23 will be completely 26l covered thereby shutting off suction and preventing the 27 1l attraction of bacteria laden air to the vicinity of the 28l surgical suction apparatus and from the vicinity of a surgical 29,, wound. Still further, upon the surgical suction apparatus being removed from the operator's hand, while temporarily not in use, " 7.

5 1 ~ 1 the shutting off of the suction will reduce, or eliminate, 2,suction noise which may interfere with communication between 311 those performing a surgical procedure.
,j It will be further understood that the thumb of the operator 5 may be moved forwardly and rearwardly to move the actuator 14 6l and control tube 18 between its extreme rearward and forward 71 positions shown, respectively, in FIGS. 4 and 5 and to stop the actuator 14 and control tube 18 at any intermediate position 91 between the extreme rearward and forward positions.

10; As will be further understood by those skilled in the art, the above-described components comprising an embodiment of the present invention may be made of known materials and by known 13 manufacturing processes. For example, the hand grip 12 and 1~1 actuator 14 may be made of a suitab]e aluminum, or aluminum alloy, !
15l and may be manufactured, for example, by casting; the internal 16 suction tube 16 and external control tube 18 may be made of 1711a suitable stainless steel tubing or other suitable metal tubing.
l~iAlternatively, such components may be made of suitable plastics;
1911for example, the hand grip 12 and actuator 14 may be made of 20 ! a suitable plastic and may be manufactured, for example, by 2111injection molding, and the internal suction tube 16 and external 221control tube 18 may be made of a suitable extruded plastic and 23 the cutter blade 21 may be made of a suitable metal, such as 2~lstainless steel, and may be suitably secured to the end of the 2Sj external control tube 18 by known metal-to-plastic adhesive 261techniques. ~ .
27lj It will be understood by those-skilled in the art that many 28 modifications and variations may be made in the surgical suction 2glapparatus of the present invention wi-thout departing from the 30 spirit and the scope of the present invention.

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Claims

THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION IN WHICH AN EXCLUSIVE
PROPERTY OR PRIVILEGE IS CLAIMED ARE DEFINED AS FOLLOWS:

1. Surgical suction apparatus for applying suction to surgical debris to clear a surgical wound, said apparatus for being connected to a suction source, comprising:
suction means providing an entrance aperture through which said suction is applied to said surgical debris and providing an exit aperture through which surgical debris sucked through said entrance aperture exits said apparatus, and control means including external cutting means for externally cutting any surgical debris lodged in said entrance aperture to thereby clear said aperture.

2. Surgical apparatus according to Claim 1 wherein said suction means comprises a first tube terminating in a generally cylindrical filter provided with a plurality of radially dis-posed suction holes providing said entrance aperture, and wherein said cutting means comprises a second tube axially surrounding said first tube and mounted for sliding, reciprocat-ing, translating movement relative to said first tube to permit portions of said second tube to engage and cut said surgical debris lodged in said entrance aperture.

3. Surgical apparatus according to Claim 2 wherein said second tube is terminated in a generally annular cutting blade for engaging and cutting said surgical debris lodged in said entrance aperture.

4. Surgical apparatus according to Claim 1 wherein said suction means comprises a first tube terminating in a generally cylindrical filter provided with a plurality of radially dis-posed suction holes providing said entrance aperture, and where-in said control means comprises a second tube coaxially surround-ing said first tube and mounted for sliding, reciprocating, translating movement relative to said first tube to permit portions of said second tube to cover and uncover said suction holes to vary said suction applied to said surgical debris.

5. Surgical apparatus according to Claim 4 wherein said plurality of radially disposed suction holes are of different sizes and are axially disposed such that the smaller sized suction holes are forwardly of said generally cylindrical filter and said larger suction holes are rearwardly of said generally cylindrical filter whereby, upon said second tube being slid forwardly of said first tube, the number and size of said radially disposed suction holes exposed are decreased thereby reducing the suction applied and focusing the suction at the forward end of said first tube and, upon said second tube being slid rearwardly of said first tube, the size and number of said radially disposed suction holes exposed are increased thereby increasing the suction applied.