Classifications

• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
  • A61M—DEVICES FOR INTRODUCING MEDIA INTO, OR ONTO, THE BODY; DEVICES FOR TRANSDUCING BODY MEDIA OR FOR TAKING MEDIA FROM THE BODY; DEVICES FOR PRODUCING OR ENDING SLEEP OR STUPOR
  • A61M5/00—Devices for bringing media into the body in a subcutaneous, intra-vascular or intramuscular way; Accessories therefor, e.g. filling or cleaning devices, arm-rests
  • A61M5/14—Infusion devices, e.g. infusing by gravity; Blood infusion; Accessories therefor
  • A61M5/1407—Infusion of two or more substances
  • A61M5/1408—Infusion of two or more substances in parallel, e.g. manifolds, sequencing valves
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
  • A61M—DEVICES FOR INTRODUCING MEDIA INTO, OR ONTO, THE BODY; DEVICES FOR TRANSDUCING BODY MEDIA OR FOR TAKING MEDIA FROM THE BODY; DEVICES FOR PRODUCING OR ENDING SLEEP OR STUPOR
  • A61M25/00—Catheters; Hollow probes
  • A61M25/01—Introducing, guiding, advancing, emplacing or holding catheters
  • A61M25/02—Holding devices, e.g. on the body
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
  • A61M—DEVICES FOR INTRODUCING MEDIA INTO, OR ONTO, THE BODY; DEVICES FOR TRANSDUCING BODY MEDIA OR FOR TAKING MEDIA FROM THE BODY; DEVICES FOR PRODUCING OR ENDING SLEEP OR STUPOR
  • A61M25/00—Catheters; Hollow probes
  • A61M25/01—Introducing, guiding, advancing, emplacing or holding catheters
  • A61M25/02—Holding devices, e.g. on the body
  • A61M2025/0286—Holding devices, e.g. on the body anchored in the skin by suture or other skin penetrating devices

Definitions

• This invention relates to the field of intravenous catheters, and, more particularly, to an indwelling catheter that has an improved junction housing configuration that allows the catheter to be affixed to the patient in an orientation- free manner and which provides enhanced patient comfort.
• typical indwelling patient catheters are used to gain access to the patient's venous system and is employed to infuse variously fluids into that patient and/or to withdraw fluids from the patient.
• the catheter normally includes a junction housing, particularly with the multi lumen catheters, and the junction housing facilitates communication between the plurality of inflow tubes and the single multi- lumen cannula that is inserted into the patient for communicating with the venous system of the patient.
• the indwelling multilumen cannula is inserted into the venous system of the patient by means of the Seldinger technique or other insertion means and the junction housing is then affixed to the skin of the patient so the catheter can remain in place for a continuous period of time.
• the fluids can be administered to the patient through the multiple of inflow tubes without continually inserting and withdrawing the catheter from the venous system of the patient.
• the free ends of the inflow tubes preferable have Luer fittings to aid in connecting to the various supplies of fluid or to other devices.
• the catheter junction housing is either taped to the patient's skin or preferable is sutured to that skin, in which case, the junction housing has suture openings that are used to secure the junction housing to the patient with the sutures.
• the mere fact of having a catheter affixed to the patient's skin is an uncomfortable circumstance and it is therefore advantageous that the attachment and the suturing of the junction housing cause a minimum of discomfort to the patient.
• the suture openings are displaced away from the surface of the patient 's skin and thus, when the sutures are tightened, the catheter junction housing is drawn toward the skin and correspondingly, the skin is displaced upwardly toward the junction housing and the suture opening in the housing.
• the configuration of the junction housing be as nearly as possible fitted to the skin in a comfortable and conforming surface. Not only is the close fitting feature more comfortable to the patient but additionally, it reduces the free space between the catheter junction housing and the patient's skin where the growth of bacteria is likely to take place.
• the present catheter junction housings are designed to have a necessary orientation as they are sutured to the patient, that is, the configuration of current junction housings require that the housing be affixed only in one orientation and such limitation is some times inconvenient to the practitioner that is suturing the junction housing to the patient.
• an indwelling catheter having a junction housing configured with a slightly convex curved surfaces so as to lie flat against the surface to the patient's skin and generally conform to the normal curvature of the skin to present a comfortable orientation to the patient.
• the catheter housing has both of its surface areas of a mirror image, slightly convex curved surfaces so that the junction housing may be sutured to the patient in an orientation-free manner.
• the attending personnel can suture the junction housing to the patient in either of its positions and thus is more convenient to the caregiver since the multilumen cannula can be readily inserted by conventional techniques into the venous system of the patient and the catheter need be twisted only a minimum amount to comfortably seat one of its surfaces against the skin of the patient.
• FIG. 1 is a front perspective view of a typical current indwelling catheter known in the prior art
• FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the prior art indwelling catheter of FIG. 1 taken along the lines 2-2 of FIG. 1 ;
• FIG. 3 is an enlarged perspective view of a junction housing for an indwelling catheter constructed in accordance with the present invention
• FIG. 4 is a plan view of an indwelling catheter in accordance with the present invention and showing the junction housing of FIG. 3 with a plurality of inflow tubes;
• FIG. 5 is a plan view of a junction housing constructed in accordance with the present invention .
• FIG. 6 is a side view of the junction housing of FIG. 5;
• FIG. 7 is an end view of the junction housing of FIG. 5. Detailed Description of the Invention
• the indwelling catheter 10 comprises a housing 12 having a single cannula 14 extending outwardly from the housing 12 and which is intended to be inserted into the patient and have the distal tip 16 positioned within the venous system of the patient to infuse or withdraw fluids from that venous system.
• Extending proximally from housing 12 is an inflow tube 18 that may include a Luer lock fitting 20 at its proximal end thereof for ready attachment to the various medical tubing that supplies fluid for introduction into the patient.
• the housing 12 has a plurality of suture openings 22, two of which are used in the preferred embodiment.
• the sutures are placed in the skin of the patient and then circle through each of the suture openings 22 so as to tightly affix the catheter in position on the patient.
• the lower surface is a flat surface 24 while the opposite, upper surface is a curved surface 26 that is slightly convex.
• the flat surface 24 is intended to face the surface skin of the patient and the curved surface 26 faces away from the skin of the patient.
• a passageway 28 passes through the housing 12 and forms a part of the communication from the Luer fitting 20 to the distal end 16 of the indwelling catheter 10 so that fluids can be introduced into the patient through the indwelling catheter 10.
• FIG. 3 there is shown an enlarge ⁇ perspective view u ⁇ _ junction housing 30 constructed in accordance with the present invention as used on an indwelling catheter 32.
• a single multilumen cannula 34 that extends distally from the junction housing 30 and which contains, for example, five separate lumens for delivering fluids to and/or for withdrawing fluids from the patient.
• each inflow tube 36 can have a particular fluid introduced into the inflow tube and that fluid will pass through the catheter junction housing 30 into a specific lumen within the multilumen cannula 34 to be discharged from the distal end thereof into the venous system of the patient.
• the outer surface 38 of the junction housing 30 is, as seen, slightly curved outwardly, that is, a slightly convex, smooth surface and thus is a surface that fits well into and conforms to the surface of the patient's skin.
• a pair of suture openings 40 are provided in the outer periphery of the generally circular configuration of the junction housing 30.
• FIG. 4 there is shown a perspective view of a portion of the indwelling catheter 32 and illustrating the plurality of inflow tubes 36 that, for convenience, have their proximal ends terminate in Luer fittings 42 to be attached to other medical tubing or devices to administer or receive fluids to and from the patient.
• the inflow tubes may be of a polymer material to be flexible yet sufficiently strong to withstand the application.
• FIGs. 5-7 there is shown, respectively, a plan view of the junction housing 30, a side view of the junction housing 30 and an end view of the junction housing 30, all constructed for use in an indwelling catheter 32 in accordance with the present invention.
• the outer surfaces 38 of the indwelling catheter 32 are mirror images and both are slightly curved outwardly, or slightly convex.
• the outer surfaces 38 are interchangeable with respect to the positioning of the indwelling catheter on the patient, that is, therefore the indwelling catheter is orientation-free and can be sutured to the patient in either position.
• the caregiver does not have to pre-orient the catheter in any particular position since, once the multilumen cannula 34 had achieved the desired position in communication with the venous system of patient the junction housing can be immediately sutured in place without regard to whether either side is correct to face the patients skin.

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• 2000
  • 2000-03-17 AU AU41735/00A patent/AU772368B2/en not_active Expired
  • 2000-03-17 JP JP2000604902A patent/JP2002538903A/ja active Pending
  • 2000-03-17 EP EP00921408A patent/EP1161275A1/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 2000-03-17 WO PCT/US2000/007307 patent/WO2000054830A1/en not_active Application Discontinuation

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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