US3362673A

US3362673A - Dialyzer support assembly

Info

Publication number: US3362673A
Application number: US503006A
Authority: US
Inventors: Robert S Patch
Original assignee: Sweden Freezer Manufacturing Co
Current assignee: Sweden Freezer Manufacturing Co
Priority date: 1965-10-23
Filing date: 1965-10-23
Publication date: 1968-01-09
Anticipated expiration: 1985-01-09

Description

Jam 9, 1968 R. s. PATCH DIALYZER SUPPORT ASSEMBLY 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed 00L 23, 1965 ROBERT S. PATCH INVENTOR.

FIG. 2

AT TOR NE YS Jan. 9, 1968 R. s. PATCH 3,362,673

DIALYZER SUPPORT ASSEMBLY Filed Oct 23, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG.3

ROBERT S. PATCH I INVENTOR.

United States Patent 3,362,673 DIALYZER SUPPORT ASSEMBLY Robert S. Patch, Bainbridge Island, Wasln, assignor to Sweden Freezer Manufacturing (30., Seattle, Wash., a corporation of Washington Filed Oct. 23, 1965, Ser. No. 503,006 4 Claims. ((11. 248397) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A dialyzer support assembly supports a dialyzer in an elevated position for controlled swinging about a horizontal axis and clamps the dialyzer against movement both parallel and perpendicular to the swing plane. Clamp screws are employed to interlock a dialyzer clamp assembly with a swing frame.

This invention relates to apparatus for use in hemodialysis, and more particularly to an apparatus for supporting a dialyzer employed in hemodialysis.

In recent years, artificial kidneys have been employed to treat patients with acute renal failure and to rehabilitate patients who would otherwise die of chronic uremia. One of the major problems in the use of artificial kidney systems has been the complexity of the apparatus associated with hemodialysis techniques. Such apparatus requires the constant attention of highly trained personnel and furthermore is quite bulky and expensive.

An essential feature of an artificial kidney system is the dialyzer. A kiil-type dialyzer, which is generally preferred, comprises two cellophane semipermeable envelopes through which small portions of a patients blood passes in counterflow to a dialysis solution passing on the outer surface of the cellophane envelopes. The dialysis solution removes waste from the blood portions by a permeation phenomenon. When the dialyzer is first assembled before each dialysis a preferred technique is to rinse the dialyzer interior with a sterilizing medium. Following such rinsing, the medium must be drained from the dialyzer prior to the onset of dialysis. After termination of dialysis, another preferred technique is to drain as much of the remaining purified blood as possible back into the patient.

Existing apparatus employed to support a dialyzer is bulky and inconvenient to operate. Hence, the technique of draining sterilizing medium from a dialyzer prior to dialysis and of draining purified blood back into a patient is often difficult to accomplish and wasteful of the time of hospital personnel.

Furthermore, as artificial kidney systems become less complex and expensive, such systems will be frequently used by patients at home rather than at a hospital or clinic. Consequently, dialyzer supporting apparatus must be provided that can be easily and safely operated by members of a patients family at home.

It is a primary object of this invention to provide a dialyzer support assembly that is easy and safe to operate and that is suitable for use either in the home or in a hospital or clinic. Another object is to provide such a support assembly which permits the aforementioned techniques of sterilizing medium draining and purified blood draining to be accomplished quickly and safely with a minimum amount of attention. A further object is to pro- 3,362,673 Patented Jan. 9, 1968 vide such a support assembly that permits convenient assembly and disassembly of a kill-type dialyzer.

These and other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the following description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, of which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a preferred dialyzer support assembly with some parts broken away to show details that would otherwise be hidden from view;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional detail view taken along the line 2-2 in FIG. 1 showing one feature of this invention; and

FIG. 3 is an end elevation view of the dialyzer support assembly.

The dialyzer support assembly of this invention comprises a frame connected to a rotatable shaft, means for supporting the frame with the shaft rotatably journaled thereto, and a gear assembly for rotating or tilting the frame and holding the frame in a selected position. A dialyzer clamp assembly is supported by the frame and is fixedly secured to the frame by clamp pins or screws. With reference to FIG. 1, the frame is denoted by numeral 10, the frame support means by numeral 12, the gear assembly by numeral 14, the dialyzer clamp assembly by numeral 16 and clamp screws by numerals 18 and 20.

The frame 10 is rectangular and preferably comprises two side bars, 22 and 24, and two end bars, 26 and 28, end-welded together. A shaft 30 extends transversely across the frame 10 and through

side bars

22 and 24 at their mid point and is connected to frame 10 in a manner suitable to prevent rotation of one relative to the other.

Support means 12 preferably comprises a carriage having a rectangular base 32 and two upwardly extending legs numbered 34 and 36. Base 32 is fabricated from four angle bars aligned and end-welded together such that base 32 has a narrow rectangular upper surface 32a and an outer peripheral skirt 32b. Base 32 is provided with four wheel assemblies 42, one at each corner, which may be either orbital wheels as shown or circular wheels. Leg members 34 and 36 are attached to base 32 by

brace members

44 and 46, respectively.

Leg extension members

38 and 40 are adjustably connected to leg members 34 and 36, respectively, such as by bolts 35, and are adapted to receive the journal-mounted ends of shaft 30. The adjustable feature of the legs of support means 12 permits adjustment of frame 10 to any desirable height within the extension limit of the legs. If desired, leg members 34 and 36 may be provided with tubular members 48 and 50 adapted to receive a support rod for a blood transfusion assembly or some other assembly.

Gear assembly 14 preferably comprises a semi-circular worm gear 52 axially fitted on one end portion of shaft 30, and a worm 54 meshed with worm gear 52 and journal-mounted to a worm frame 56 which is attached to leg extension member 38. One end portion of worm 54 is provided with a bevel gear 56. A handle 58 is journalmounted to worm frame 56 perpendicular to worm 54 and has a crank arm 60 with a bevel gear 62 connected at one end portion thereof and meshed with bevel gear 56. Relative movement between worm gear 52 and frame 10 is prevented by a suitable connection such as U-bar braces 64 pinned to worm gear 52 and frame 10. This gear assembly will rotate or tilt frame 10 to any desired position from horizontal to substantially vertical and maintain the a desired position until such is changed by rotation of handle 58.

The dialyzer clamp assembly 16 comprises a base peripheral frame 66, a top peripheral frame 68, and a plurality of adjustable clamps 70. The base and top peripheral frames are substantial inverted duplicates of one another and are provided with side bars 7274 and 72'74', respectively, and intermediate reinforcing cross bars 76 and 76', respectively, having T-shaped cross-sections with the leg of the T extending in an outward direction from the clamp assembly. Two such base intermediate cross bars 76 are spaced such that they can be positioned inwardly adjacent to clamp screws 18 and 20, respectively, as shown in FIG. 2 and are provided with apertures adapted to receive such clamp screws in order to fixedly secure the dialyzer clamp assembly to frame 10. To aid in the initial positioning of clamp assembly 16 on frame 10, the T-legs of these two base intermediate cross bars 76 have lower edge portions 76a (see FIG. 2) that are notched at their outer end edges such that the remaining unnotched portions are adapted for insertion between the

side bars

22 and 24 of the frame 10. By this arrangement, the notched cross bars prevent lateral movement of the clamp assembly within the plane defined by the frame and the clamp screws prevent movement of the clamp assembly perpendicular to the frame plane.

Each clamp 70 preferably comprises a retaining lever '78 pivotally hinged at its lower end section to the base peripheral frame 66, and a toggle clamp having a toggle link 80 which has an adjustable bolt 82 adapted to fit within an aperture provided therefor on the upper surface of the top peripheral frame 68, and a handle 83 pivotally hinged to an intermediate section of lever 78 and to the lower end section of toggle 80. The preferred clamp is termed a toggle clamping means. The base and top

peripheral frames

66 and 68 are preferably provided with

clamp blocks

84 and 86, respectively, at the location of each clamp '70. The toggle 78 of each toggle clamping means is preferably hinged at its lower end section to a respective clamp block 84 and an adjustable bolt 82 of each toggle clamping means is preferably adapted to fit into an aperture provided therefor in a respective clamp block 86. When the toggle clamping means are opened from the closed position shown in FIG. 1, each handle is pivoted upwardly thereby lifting the respective arch members off of the upper clamp blocks so that the clamps can be pivoted outward about the lower clamp block hinge points. After the toggle clamping means are opened, the top peripheral frame 68 can be removed and the dialyzer removed or inserted, as the case may be.

If desired, an intermediate frame can be added to the dialyzer clamp assembly between the base and top

peripheral frames

66 and 68. Such an intermediate frame would preferably comprise retaining side bars 88a which are connected to an inter-mediate section of body member 78 of each of the corner clamps, and end bars 88b which are connected to the ends of side bars 88a by a pair of screw bolts 88c. Upon removing one of the screw bolts 88c, and allowing the ends bars to swing free, the corner clamps can be pivoted outwardly in unison after they are opened with the side bars 88a attached.

The clamp assembly is described in detail in copending application Ser. No. 503,007, filed of even date herewith, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference entitled, Dialyzer Clamp Assembly, by James E. Cary.

With reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, clamp screw 18 (clamp screw 20 being identical to clamp screw 18 shown in FIG. 2) has an elongated shank 98 with an intermediate section 90a thereof threaded and adapted to be screwed into a raised tab section 26a of end bar 26. The inner section 9% of shank 98 is not threaded and is adapted to slidably fit into a suitable aperture in lower cross bar '76 when shank 90 is threaded into tab section 26a. The outer end section of shank 90 extends outwardly through a suitably provided aperture in a support bracket 92 and has an adjusting knob 94 pinned thereon. This aperture has a smaller diameter than the outer thread diameter of threaded portion a. The upstanding arm 92a of support bracket 92 is positioned outwardly from tab portion 26a a sufficient distance such that knob 94 will contact bracket arm 92a when the threaded section 90a of shank 90 is completely screwed into tab portion 26a, and such that clamp screw 18 may be unscrewed from tab portion 26a and loosely retained by bracket 92.

Clamp screws 18 and 20 are preferably provided at diagonally opposite end sections of their respective end bars 26 and 28 as shown in FIGURE 1 to further insure that the dialyzer clamp assembly 16 will be properly con nected to frame 10.

A preferred dialyzer as shown in FIG. 3 comprises an intermediate plastic plate 100a, top and bottom plastic plates, 10% and 1000 respectively, and a rectangular peripheral soft rubber seal member 100d which encloses the peripheral sides of intermediate plate 100a. The combined widths of intermediate plate 100a and seal member 100d are equal to the widths of the top and bottom plates 10% and C. The thickness of seal member 100d is slightly greater than the thickness of intermediate plate 100a such that a fluid-tight seal will be created when the top and bottom plates 1001) and 1000 are compressibly urged toward one another when the clamp assembly is placed in clamping position as shown in FIG. 3. Because of the flexibility of seal member 100d, seal member 180d will tend to be deformed outward under the clamping pressure of clamps 70. In order to inhibit the outward deformation of seal member 1000', intermediate retaining side bars 88a are preferably connected to the corner clamps by screws 880. Thus, when the clamps 70 are placed in a clamping position, intermediate retaining bars 880 are brought to the outer edge of seal member 100d to prevent its outward deformation. The dialyzer is described in US. patent application Ser. No. 503,002, entitled, Dialyzer, by Harvey F. Swenson, filed of even date herewith, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by this reference.

Although preferred embodiments of this invention have been described herein, certain modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the invention. For example, the clamp screws 18 and 20 could be replaced by clamp pins adapted for insertion into adjacent cross bars.

What is claimed is:

1. A support assembly for a dialyzer which comprises an elevated frame; upright support means; means for mounting said frame on said support means for controlled swinging about a horizontal axis; a dialyzer clamp assembly comprising a base peripheral frame, a top peripheral frame, and a plurality of adjustable clamps pivotally connected to said base peripheral frame and adapted to compressibly contact said top peripheral frame; and means for fixedly connecting said dialyzer clamp assembly to said frame comprising at least two clamp screws connected to said frame and adapted to extend into apertures provided therefor in said base peripheral frame.

2. A support assembly according to claim 1 wherein said means for mounting said frame to said support means comprises a shaft attached to said frame and adapted to rotate said frame, a worm gear mounted on said shaft, a worm rotatably mounted on said support means and meshed with said worm gear, a first bevel gear mounted on one end of said worm, a handle rotatably mounted on said support means, and a second bevel gear mounted on said handle and meshed with said first bevel gear.

3. A support assembly according to claim 1 wherein said frame comprises a pair of side bars and a pair of end bars; and wherein each of said end bars are provided at diagonally opposite sections with a raised tab section having a threaded aperture therethrough; and wherein said means for afiixing a dialyzer assembly to said frame include support brackets connected to the frame end bars adjacent to said tab sections with apertures therethrough being aligned with the threaded apertures of said tab sections; and wherein said clamp screws each extend through a support bracket aperture and have an adjusting knob on the outer end thereof, a threaded intermediate section adapted to threadedly engage a respective threaded tab aperture and having an inner end section adapted to extend beyond the respective threaded tab aperture.

4. A support assembly according to claim 1 wherein said support means for said frame comprises a wheelable base member, a pair of upwardly extending leg members connected to said base member, and a pair of leg eXten- 10 References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,450,511 4/1923 Nielsen 26961 X 1,481,503 1/1924 Carswell et a1 26960 X 1,812,585 6/1931 Collins 26960 X 3,060,934 10/1962 Claff et a1 210321 X FOREIGN PATENTS 946,527 8/ 1956 Germany.

JOHN PETO, Primary Examiner.

J. F. FOSS, Assistant Examiner.