GB2153231A - Leg bag for urine drainage - Google Patents

Abstract

A leg bag is provided which tightens progressively on the leg as the weight of urine in it increases. When the bag is empty, the device is relatively loose on the leg and correspondingly less likely to cause discomfort or interference with venous blood flow than the constantly tight prior art bags. Progressive tightening is achieved in one embodiment (Fig. 2) by using the urine chamber and a strap together to encircle the leg. Urine flow into the bag displaces apart two faces of the bag to bring its side edges closer together. In another embodiment (Fig. 1) the urine chamber (V) depends from a "Chinese finger" type gripping bandage (10). <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Leg bag for urine drainage This invention relates to a leg bag for urine drainage, that is to say, a body fluid connection device to be carried on the leg of an ambulant patient and comprising a leg encircling strap and a fluid collection chamber.

Previous proposals for such bags suffer from the disadvantage that the strap must be made tight enough around the leg that it will not slip downwardly on the leg, even when the collection chamber is full of liquid. The necessary tightness of the strap causes some discomfort for the patient, which discomfort is present for all the time that he is wearing the bag. The tightness of the strap may be so high as to interfere with venous return flow of blood in the leg in question.

The present invention stems from an appre ciation that the strap need only be at full tightness when the chamber is full of liquid.

When the chamber is empty, the strap can be relatively loose, and the bag still remain in place on the leg.

Accordingly, the present invention provides, in a body fluid collection device of the type defined above, a connection between the leg encircling strap and the fluid collection chamber such that the strap is caused progressively to tighten on the leg as the weight of fluid in the chamber increases.

With the invention, the strap will be just as tight when the bag is full as with the prior proposed bags, but this will only be for a small proportion of the time that the bag is worn, because soon after the bag has become full, the patient will empty it. For the rest of the time, the patient will not suffer from the discomfort of the tight strap, nor will his venous return blood flow be affected to anything like the same extent.

One way of putting the invention into effect would be to provide the device in the form of a tubular component, resembling to some extent an elastic bandage but comprising a lattice of warp and weft strands, both extending diagonally down the leg from an elastic top band. The fluid collection chamber would be attached to this tubular element at or near its lower edge, so that increasing weight of the collection chamber as it receives more and more bodily liquid, will progressively increase the tension in the diagonal strands, and so tighten the tubular element on the leg.

The presently preferred construction, however, involves using a liquid collection chamber to complete the circle of the or each leg encircling strap. Liquid flowing into the chamber will displace apart from one another the wall surface of the chamber lying against the leg, and the other main wall surface of the bag, opposed to it. This displacement will have the effect of bringing closer to one another the two opposed side edges of the chamber, and this effect will increase the tension in the or each leg encircling strap.

For a better understanding of the present invention, and to show more clearly how the same may be carried into effect, reference will now be made, by way of example, to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a perspective view of a first embodiment of the collection device, on the leg of a patient; Figure 2 is a front view of a second embodiment of the collection device when empty; and Figure 3 is a section of the Figure 2 embodiment along the line Ill-Ill, showing the altered disposition which the device takes up when full.

Referring to Figure 1, the device comprises a tubular element 10 with an elastic top band 11 which grips the leg just below the knee.

From this band depend a number of warp strands 12 and weft strands 13, diagonally down the leg each at about 45 from the length of the top band 11. It is to be understood that the effective diameter of the tubular device 10 beneath the top band 11 varies with the length between the top band 11 and the bottom edge 14, the diameter becoming progressively smaller as the length between the top and bottom of the device increases.

The device is applied to the leg by bringing the top and bottom edges 11 and 14 close to one another so as to increase the diameter of the device, and then elastically stretching the top band 11 so as to increase the minimum diameter of the device by an extent sufficient to bring the device over the foot and up the leg to just below the knee.

By connecting a urine collection vessel V to the lower edge 14 of the device, the effect will be achieved that increasing weight of urine in the vessel will tend to increase the length between the top band 11 and the lower edge 14 and consequently tighten the warp and weft strands 12 and 13 on the leg thereby achieving the desired effect of retaining the collection bag in place on the leg, but with a tightness in the leg encircling strap of no more than is necessary at any particular time to achieve this required result.

Referring now to Figures 2 and 3, the device comprises a pair of like sheets of plastics material of which an inner one 19 lies in use against the leg of the patient and an outer one 20 faces outward from the leg. The two sheets are bonded to one another in a welded peripheral zone 21 through which extend a urine inlet tube 22 and drain tube 23. On one side 24 of the bag in the peripheral zone there is provided an upper stud 25 engageable with one of a series of eyes 26 on an upper strap 27 itself buttoned to a stud 28 in the peripheral seam on the opposed side 29 of the bag. Likewise there is a lower stud 30 which is engageable with one of a similar series 31 of eyes in a lower strap 32, itself buttoned to a stud 33 in the peripheral seam 21 on the side edge 29.

In a particularly preferred embodiment, as shown in Figure 2, the liquid containing area bounded by the peripheral seam 21 is provided with a number of vertical channels 34 separated by welded lines 35 at which the front 10 and rear faces of the bag are joined to one another. The top and bottom ends of the weld lines 35 are spaced from the top and bottom welded edges of the bag, respectively.

In use of the bag, it is strapped around the leg by bringing the straps 27 and 32 around the leg and engaging one of the eyes 26 and 32 on the corresponding studs 25 and 30, such as to provide sufficient, but no more, tension than is necessary to hold the empty bag in place on the leg. (It is envisaged that the rear face 19 of the bag, and perhaps also the rear faces of the straps 27 and 32 may be provided with a high-friction finish so as to assist in this purpose.) When urine flows down the tube 22 and into the collection chamber it will (as shown in Fig. 3) inevitably displace the front and rear sheets of the bag apart from one another, and this displacement has the effect of reducing the distance between the vertical weld lines 35, and so between the side edges 24 and 29 of the bag.It will be appreciated that this effect tightens the bag and straps 27 and 32 on the leg, in proportion to the volume of urine within the bag. It should also be appreciated that this same effect will tend to displace the inner sheet of the bag material away from the leg in the immediate areas of the weld lines 35, and the consequent vertical air channels A A at the weld lines 35 between the device and the leg of the wearer will allow both flow of air between the bag and the leg and also flow of venous return blood up the leg in the areas immediately below the weld lines 35.

The overall shape of the bag, being relatively wide in relation to its length up and down the leg is such as to reduce the maximum distance by which the full bag extends outwardly from the leg, the necessary volume of the bag being obtained instead by wrapping around a substantial proportion of the circumference of the leg, and in this respect the weld lines 35 may assist in reducing the maximum distance by which the full bag projects from the leg.

Thus, there is a cosmetic advantage in bags such as the one illustrated in Figure 2, besides the functional advantages described above.

It will be appreciated that the straps 27 and 32 should be elastically stretchable along their length by a degree sufficient to allow the channels 34 to fill and expand to their full width from the back face 19 to the front face 20, but the modulus of elasticity should not be so low that the weight of fluid in the bag can cause the bag when full to slip down the leg. These considerations will probably dictate that the material of the straps is elastically deformable to a different degree than the bag itself and so is made of a different material.

Claims (11)

1. A fluid collection device to be carried with a loop of the device encircling the leg of an ambulant patient. the device in use being retained in a chosen position on the leg by the frictional grip of the loop on the leg, the device comprising at least one strap to extend around the leg and a fluid collection chamber which is held to the leg by the strap, characterised in that the connection between the strap and the chamber is such as to bring about progressive reduction of the circumference of the loop of the device which grips the leg with progressive increase of the weight of the device as the chamber fills with fluid.

2. A device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the chamber and the strap together make up said loop.

3. A device as claimed in claim 2 wherein the chamber is formed from a pair of sheets of plastics material of which an inner one lies in use against the leg and an outher faces outward from the leg.

4. A device as claimed in claim 3 wherein the said sheets are joined together so as to define, within the liquid---containing area of the chamber, a number of connected vertical channels.

5. A device as claimed in any one of claims 2, 3 or 4 wherein the strap is elastically stretchable.

6. A device as claimed in claim 5 wherein the material of which the chamber is formed is elastically stretchable to an extent different from that of the strap.

7. A device as claimed in any one of claims 2 to 6 wherein the strap has along a part of its length a plurality of eyes for buttoning to studs in the periphery of the chamber, whereby the circumference of the device is adjustable.

8. A device as claimed in any one of claims 2 to 7, which has two straps, namely, an upper strap and a lower strap.

9. A device as claimed in claim 1 wherein the strap comprises a lattice of warp and weft strands, both extending diagonally down the leg from an elastic top band, and the chamber is attached to the said strap at or near its lower edge.

10. A fluid collection device substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to, and as shown in, Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings.

11. A fluid collection device substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to, and as shown in, Figures 2 and 3 of the accompanying drawings.