RU64505U1 - DEVICE FOR CONTROL OF INTEGRITY OF MEDICAL GLOVES - Google Patents

Abstract

The device relates to medical equipment, in particular, to personal protective equipment for hands of a medical worker (gloves), and can be used to control the integrity of gloves during contact of a medical worker with tissues and physiological fluids of a person (patient). The objective of this utility model is to create a portable device that is easy to manufacture for monitoring the integrity of medical gloves, providing an efficient, highly sensitive detection of microdamage to gloves. The problem is solved by the claimed device for monitoring the integrity of medical gloves, consisting of a power source, electrodes, a threshold device in the form of a field effect transistor with an induced channel, a resistor and an alarm device, while the threshold device is connected to a battery and one of the electrodes, and the connection to the second the electrode is produced through an alarm device.

Description

The device relates to medical equipment, in particular, to personal protective equipment for hands of a medical worker (gloves), and can be used to control the integrity of gloves during contact of a medical worker with tissues and physiological fluids of a person (patient).

It is known that direct contact with tissues or body fluids, such as blood, lymph, saliva, sweat, urine, is not safe for a healthcare professional due to possible infection. For these purposes, there are various personal protective equipment for the hands of a medical professional. One of them is medical gloves. Often it is they, with a thickness of a fraction of a millimeter, that are the decisive barrier between the doctor and the patient, that is, in fact, between health and illness. First of all, gloves protect medical personnel from infected material. Indeed, on the hands there are almost always violations of the integrity of the skin, such as microcracks, maceration, etc. In addition, gloves are necessary to maintain the sterility of the surgical field during surgery and to prevent microbial contamination of the patient’s body during other manipulations requiring compliance with aseptic rules.

It is known that the integrity of gloves depends on their quality, the degree of exposure to them, accidental injuries with piercing and cutting medical instruments, and sharp edges of bone tissue. It is known that the timely removal of physiological fluid from the hands of a health worker, as well as the prevention of prolonged contact with the patient’s tissues, are essential to reduce the likelihood of infection of medical personnel. However, with active work in various situations, it is not always possible to determine the time of damage to medical gloves, and, therefore, the risk of infection in such situations increases.

The prior art device for monitoring the integrity of surgical gloves, containing electrodes, serially connected amplifier, switch and bridge circuit, and visual indication. [one]

Also known from the prior art is a device for monitoring the integrity of surgical gloves, containing the surgeon’s electrodes connected to an input amplifier, which is made logarithmic with a nonlinear element, patient electrodes, a power source, light or sound indication, and

a calibration voltage source through which the patient's electrodes are connected to a power source. [2]

However, these devices did not find real practical application in view of some of the difficulties of their use. In addition, the manufacture of these devices is quite time-consuming due to the large number of complex elements that make up their composition.

These devices are large-sized, and, due to their rather high energy consumption, require the use of large-capacity power batteries or connection to an electric network with a voltage of 220 W, while such a possibility does not always exist, for example, during emergency medical manipulations or operations in field, non-hospital conditions.

In addition, known devices do not have high sensitivity, because use an input stage with a bipolar transistor. When using modern gloves made of natural latex, nitrile or chloroprene latex, as well as vinyl and polyethylene gloves, small-diameter breaks occur, for example, from a medical needle, which are not detected by known devices.

The objective of this utility model is to create a portable device that is easy to manufacture for monitoring the integrity of medical gloves, providing an efficient, highly sensitive detection of microdamage to gloves.

The problem is solved by the claimed device for monitoring the integrity of medical gloves, consisting of a power source, electrodes, a threshold device in the form of a field effect transistor with an induced channel, a resistor and an alarm device, while the threshold device is connected to a battery and one of the electrodes, and the connection to the second the electrode is produced through an alarm device.

In a preferred embodiment of the claimed utility model, a vibration motor is installed as an alarm device.

Thanks to the use of an induced channel transistor as a threshold device, an extremely high threshold sensitivity of the device is ensured, which is very important for detecting holes of very small diameters.

The figure 1 presents a block diagram of the inventive device, in which 1 is a power source, 2 is a threshold device, 3 is a resistor, 4 is a signaling device, 5 and 6 are electrodes.

The power source (1) serves to supply voltage to the components of the circuit.

The threshold device (2) is designed to convert microcurrents arising from the power source into a current sufficient to trigger the alarm device.

The resistor (3) is designed to hold the shutter of the threshold device at zero potential in the absence of current, thereby preventing spontaneous operation of the threshold device.

The alarm device (4) is intended for timely notification of a medical professional about damage to the glove.

The electrodes (5) and (6) are made in the form of metal plates and are intended to connect the inventive device to a medical professional and a patient.

The claimed device operates as follows.

Before carrying out the manipulations, the electrodes 5 and 6 are fixed, respectively, on the exposed areas of the skin of the patient and the medical worker using adhesive tape. If the surgical gloves are intact, no current flows through the resistor and the voltage drop across it, and therefore at the input of the threshold circuit, is zero, the field-effect transistor with the induced channel is closed, and the alarm device remains de-energized, i.e. is at rest.

If the glove is damaged and contact occurs, the patient-medical worker closes the electric circuit. A voltage drop occurs on the resistor, when this voltage is exceeded the threshold value, a field-effect transistor with an induced channel opens, a working electric current flows through the alarm device, making it work.

In a preferred embodiment of the utility model, the function of the alarm device is performed by a vibration motor, which during operation produces a silent vibration signal. The use of a vibration signal is preferable to the use of an audio or light signal, since it does not distract the attention of the personnel involved in the operation.

The alarm device works until the contact between the patient and the medical professional is eliminated.

The inventive device exhibits very high sensitivity in the presence of microdamage, which allows the medical professional to timely replace the glove, thereby significantly reducing the duration of contact between the patient and the medical worker.

The current consumed by the claimed device in standby mode is negligible, because is determined by the leakage current drain-source of a closed field-effect transistor with an induced channel, which eliminates the need for a power switch. This further simplifies the design of the device. The possibility of its miniature execution and attachment to the body of a medical worker and a patient like a bracelet greatly facilitates its use.

It is possible to connect up to four or more of the claimed devices (separate for each surgeon) to one patient plate.

The claimed device has a simple circuit and practically does not consume electric current at rest, consuming it only at the moment of operation, which allows the use of miniature autonomous batteries for its power.

The claimed device has an extremely high sensitivity due to the use of a field effect transistor and allows you to detect the smallest damage to medical gloves.

In addition, the claimed device uses as a signaling device a vibration motor that does not distract the attention of other health professionals.

1. USSR author's certificate SU 712082, A 61 B 19/04

2. USSR author's certificate SU 1398835 A1, A 61 В 10/00, 19/04

Claims (2)

1. A device for monitoring the integrity of the gloves, including a power source, electrodes and an alarm device, characterized in that it further comprises a resistor and a threshold device in the form of a field effect transistor with an induced channel, while the threshold device is connected to a battery element and one of the electrodes, and the connection to the second electrode produced through the alarm device. 2. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that the alarm device is a vibration motor.