ES2283187A1 - Introductory endotracheal tubes for serving as guide for subsequent access to endotracheal tube, have cylindrical elongated body and has rounded distal tip, where tube has outer envelope of polyethylene, polypropylene - Google Patents

Abstract

The tubes have a cylindrical elongated body and has rounded distal tip. The tube has an outer envelope of polyethylene, polypropylene or other material that is not flexible plastic. The irritating tissues of the human body, and a nucleus based on one or more steel wires that provide the body characteristics of memory enable to guide, at any given moment, any setting the operator deems appropriate to their access to trachea of the patient, and to recover such small configuration deformities suffered in the normal handling of the guide.

Description

Endotracheal tube introducer.

Object of the invention

The present invention relates to a endotracheal introducer, that is to say a guide intended to be implanted in a trachea, to facilitate the posterior link and immediate access to it from a tube that facilitates communication direct from the trachea with the outside, to facilitate in turn the breathing of the patient before different types of eventualities, to through tubes commonly called endotracheal.

The object of the invention is to facilitate the introduction of the endotracheal tube itself, both for greater ease of movement to avoid possible injuries during this introduction and gain speed in the procedure before an urgent situation.

The invention is therefore applicable in the field of medicine, and more specifically in the field of problems respiratory

Background of the invention

As is known, endotracheal intubation is a technique that involves introducing a tube into the trachea of the patient, to facilitate breathing and provide relief to patients who require artificial ventilation. This type of intubation is commonly used in surgery and in the care of urgent cases, when the patient suffers difficulties respiratory and you want to avoid possible blood aspiration, vomiting and other matters to the lungs.

However, a problem with this technique is that requires the operator to have knowledge and experience significant. The introduction of the endotracheal tube performed by Non-skilled persons may cause additional injuries. A added problem is that many of the existing techniques for the introduction of an endotracheal tube, require that the head of the patient is in a specific position and sometimes cannot be carried out in victims of trauma until the risk exclusion of cervical fractures

That is why several have been developed techniques to facilitate the placement of the endotracheal tube. The Endotracheal tubes are introduced by an expert doctor, who using a laryngoscope that displaces the epiglottis and visualizes directly the glottis and vocal cords, and under direct vision Insert the tube through the trachea. There are currently video- laryngoscopes, which are carriers of transmission elements of images, so that the operator observes by means of a monitor the introduction of the tube into the trachea.

Sometimes the visualization of the glottis can be impossible if it is full of blood or vomit, or if the patient it presents anatomical characteristics that prevent it as opening limited mouth With current technology like the video-laryngoscope can happen that the visualization of the glottis and vocal cords is excellent, but the introduction of the tube is difficult or impossible due to angulation of the video laryngoscope blade; in These cases are often necessary to use a guide or introducer to facilitate correct intubation.

In the past some were proposed devices to facilitate the introduction "blindly" or to the touch. An example of an endotracheal tube introducer conventional recognized "the gum elastic bougie (GEB)", or Eschmann catheter, consisting of a flexible piece of 0.5 cm wide and 50 cm long, and an angle of 45 ° on its end distal, useful when it is difficult to visualize and / or intubate the larynx for being in a very anterior position. The GEB can be placed through the vocal cords with the help of the laryngoscope and used as if it were a stylet to "transport" a tube endotracheal This introducer is manufactured with a base of braided polyester coated with a resin coating that provides hardness and flexibility at body temperature, but by the elastic characteristics themselves, once the operator manipulate it to be configured with the desired arc of according to the anatomical characteristics of the patient, it does not maintain such configuration, tending to adopt the initial position more flattened, which sometimes hinders the introduction of the guide in the trachea, so the manufacturer suggests the need to heat the guide locally to get more deformability of it.

Description of the invention

The endotracheal tube introducer that the proposed invention resolves in a fully satisfactory way the problem discussed above, providing a guide that allows medical personnel, with adequate training, Insert the tube into the trachea with relative ease.

To do this and more specifically, the introducer that is recommended, is materialized in a guide with dimensions of the order of the aforementioned GEB, that is to say with a diameter around 0.5 cm and a length of the order of 50- 75 cm Although these dimensions can be varied, it focuses its characteristics on the fact that instead of being obtained based on a hollow or solid rod of suitable material to deform at a certain temperature, it is structured by a core based on one or more wires of steel, covered by an envelope of a flexible plastic material that does not irritate in any way the tissues with which it has to come into contact, such as polyethylene, polypropylene or the like, with the special feature that the steel core provides introducer as a whole memory characteristics that prevent the path given to the guide by the doctor to be lost involuntarily, that is to say that the introducer offers the possibility of the doctor forming it at his own will, to generate a specific trajectory that he deems the most suitable, and before subsequent and small momentary deformations, during its manipulation, the introducer recovers the cited form given by the
doctor.

Description of the drawings

To complement the description that is being performing and in order to help a better understanding of the characteristics of the invention, according to a preferred example of practical realization of it, is accompanied as part member of that description, a set of drawings where with illustrative and non-limiting nature, what has been represented next:

Figure 1.- Shows, according to a view in perspective, an endotracheal tube introducer made of according to the object of the present invention, in its position flattened

Figure 2.- Shows, according to a view in perspective, an endotracheal tube introducer made of according to the object of the present invention, with a curvature Dadaist.

Figure 3.- Shows a detail in section transversal of the same introducer, in which it is observed with all Its structure clarity.

Preferred Embodiment of the Invention

In view of the figures outlined you can be observed as the introducer proposed by the invention is constituted from a cylindrical body (1) with the length previously cited from 50 - 75 cm or with any other that deems convenient, and with a diameter that in turn can be of 0.5 cm order, presenting its distal end (2) perfectly rounded, to facilitate access to the trachea, and provided to along a series of brands (3), properly distributed to allow the doctor to monitor at all times the degree of penetration of the introducer and consequently the level reached by the front (2) inside the trachea, with the special feature that said body (1) is constituted by means of an envelope (4) of polyethylene, polypropylene or any other flexible plastic material that does not irritate tissues humans with whom he has to come into contact, enveloping that by his nature itself is cheap since it does not require expensive and demanding materials that soften at the temperature of the human body as with the prior art.

Within the aforementioned envelope (4), establish a plurality of steel wires (5), which in the example of practical embodiment represented in figure 3 are three, but whose number may vary in a positive or negative sense, threads with a thickness that may preferably be between 0.4 and 1 mm and that, as previously stated, must offer memory characteristics that allow to provide the guide or introducer as a whole of any path estimated convenient, and later recover said trajectory against possible deformations suffered by it.

The technique of introducing the endotracheal tube (1) according to the invention, part of the use of a laryngoscope or video-laryngoscope, which shows the operator the anatomical characteristics of the patient and informs him of the necessary curvature that you should give to the guide for your best introduction to the trachea. Once the curve operator elastically to a certain degree the guide or introducer (1), this one keep the given form and can be introduced by mouth or patient's nostrils, following the curvature of the laryngoscope and sliding over the surface of the tongue, entering the oropharynx, following the curvature of the back of the tongue looking for the glottis for its introduction into the trachea, which is achieved by movements continuous operator manuals.

Once correctly inserted, on the introducer can be slid a tube along it, which It is thus perfectly guided. When the distal end of the tube endotracheal has penetrated the trachea, the introducer or guide (1) It can be removed while or even after the tube endotracheal has been advanced further in the trachea. When the guide is removed, the contact with the tube walls in its recoil movement causes you to lose the given curvature, recovering its initial form quickly when released and behaving like a conventional elastic element, in order to allow gentle extraction.

The introducer can also be used as guide when it is necessary to change the tube, if the original intubation It was hard. The introducer is inserted into the tube before remove it and the tube slides out along the introducer, while this one remains in place. A new tube it then slides along the introducer, replacing the First.

It is important to note that in the cases of medical emergency, when an intubation technique is necessary before a traumatized patient, the use of the laryngoscope is limited taking into account the risk of additional deterioration of the cord spinal resulting from the tilt of the head back, by what the guide is used directly and therefore the need that it retains the characteristics of curvatures given by the operator is even more necessary, avoiding movement potentially damaging the patient's neck for the correct location of it. Thus, a tube of shape can be introduced relatively fast and reliable in the trachea guaranteeing patient an air duct and adequate ventilation.

Claims (3)

1. Endotracheal tube introducer, of the type that materializes in an elongated body, with a length of the order of 50-75 cm and a diameter of the order of 0.5 cm, with graduation marks printed along it and a certain angle at its rounded distal end to facilitate its introduction into the trachea, characterized in that said body (1) is constituted by combining a shell (4) of a flexible plastic material, and an inner core in which it participates at least one steel wire (5) that provides the body (1) and its set with memory characteristics that allow said body (1) to be deformable at the discretion of the operator, and recover its configuration after normal deformations in the maneuvers Endotracheal implantation. 2. Endotracheal tube introducer, according to claim one, characterized in that said envelope (4) is made of polyethylene, polypropylene or other flexible latex-free plastic that does not irritate the tissues of the human body with which the body (1) is intended for get in contact. 3. Endotracheal tube introducer according to previous claims, characterized in that the steel wires or wires (5) incorporate a diameter between 0.4 and 1 mm.