Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
  • H01R—ELECTRICALLY-CONDUCTIVE CONNECTIONS; STRUCTURAL ASSOCIATIONS OF A PLURALITY OF MUTUALLY-INSULATED ELECTRICAL CONNECTING ELEMENTS; COUPLING DEVICES; CURRENT COLLECTORS
  • H01R43/00—Apparatus or processes specially adapted for manufacturing, assembling, maintaining, or repairing of line connectors or current collectors or for joining electric conductors
  • H01R43/005—Apparatus or processes specially adapted for manufacturing, assembling, maintaining, or repairing of line connectors or current collectors or for joining electric conductors for making dustproof, splashproof, drip-proof, waterproof, or flameproof connection, coupling, or casing
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A61—MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; HYGIENE
  • A61N—ELECTROTHERAPY; MAGNETOTHERAPY; RADIATION THERAPY; ULTRASOUND THERAPY
  • A61N1/00—Electrotherapy; Circuits therefor
  • A61N1/18—Applying electric currents by contact electrodes
  • A61N1/32—Applying electric currents by contact electrodes alternating or intermittent currents
  • A61N1/36—Applying electric currents by contact electrodes alternating or intermittent currents for stimulation
  • A61N1/372—Arrangements in connection with the implantation of stimulators
  • A61N1/375—Constructional arrangements, e.g. casings
  • A61N1/3752—Details of casing-lead connections
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B24—GRINDING; POLISHING
  • B24B—MACHINES, DEVICES, OR PROCESSES FOR GRINDING OR POLISHING; DRESSING OR CONDITIONING OF ABRADING SURFACES; FEEDING OF GRINDING, POLISHING, OR LAPPING AGENTS
  • B24B19/00—Single-purpose machines or devices for particular grinding operations not covered by any other main group
  • B24B19/22—Single-purpose machines or devices for particular grinding operations not covered by any other main group characterised by a special design with respect to properties of the material of non-metallic articles to be ground

Definitions

• the invention relates to a method for making a male connector part, manufactured to fit into a female connector part of a pace- maker to be replaced, suitable to be received by a female connector part of a replacement pacemaker to be operatively fitted having an insufficiently large entrance diameter, which male connector part has a metal core and a sleeve of a plastic material and is fitted to one end of an electrode wire that extends through a blood vessel of a person to the heart of that person.
• a pacemaker is a device that is fitted under the skin of a person in order to maintain the action of a heart that is functioning irregularly or weakly. If the sinus mode of the heart transmits insufficient stimuli that cause the heart muscle to contract, the heartbeat will become irregular and there will be a risk that the heart action will cease definitively.
• a pacemaker may be fitted, which is connected to the heart by meant, of an electrode wire. Rhythmic current pulses cause the heart to contract.
• the electrode wire is fitted with a male connector part that fits into a female connector part of the pacemaker.
• the elec ⁇ trode fitted at the other end of the electrode wire will become permanently lodged in the tissue growth of the heart and can only be removed with extreme difficulty.
• the pacemaker is under the patients' skin in a so-called envelope which affords only a.limited space.
• the connector link between the male and t ⁇ e female -connector parts must be of a very high quality as body fluids are to a degree corrosive. From time to time the pacemaker has to be replaced, for example because the battery has run out or because it is desirable to fit a new type. As a consequence of the advances of modern technology, pacemakers have progressively become smaller. Especial ⁇ ly the thickness of pacemakers has been reduced. The size of the connectors has been reduced accordingly. For commercial reasons, the pacemaker industry has in the past used various ⁇ onnectors. Each manufacturer had his own set of connectors.
• the connector Due to pressure from doctors and hospital technicians the connector has been volun ⁇ tarily standardized in 1986. All manufacturers of pacemakers are now using what is known as the VS-1 connector.
• the outer diameter of the male connector part of this modern connector is circa 3-2 mm.
• the diameter of the male connector part of pacemakers that were implanted in the past is to 6 mm.
• the initials VS are an abbreviation of: Voluntary Standard. If an implanted pacemaker of the older type has to be replaced by a pacemaker of the standardized type, the male connector part at the end of the electrode wire will not fit into the female connector part of the new pacemaker.
• two options 1. The manufacturer supplies a new pacemaker with a female connector part of the old type, which can receive the male connector part of the implanted electrode wire.
• the manufacturer supplies a pacemaker with a female connector part according to the new VS-1 standard and in addition supplies so-called adaptors which make it possible to adapt the existing male connector part at the end of the implanted electrode wire to the smaller female connector part of the new pacemaker.
• These adaptor pieces need to be placed under the skin in the envelope together with the pacemaker, although the space for this is in effect to small.
• the invention is intended to remove these disadvantages in a very simple and cost effective way.
• the diameter of the sleeve of plastic material of the male connector part is reduced in a manual ⁇ ly or mechanically operated device by means of cutting, milling or grinding until the required size has been reached.
• the existing male connector part at the end of the electrode wire that was implanted into the body is therefore adapted by means of cutting, milling or grinding until it has the outer diameter of a standardized VS-1 male connector part.
• the metal core of the standardized VS-1 male connector part is identical, or approximate ⁇ ly identical, to that of the old type male connector parts.
• the silicon rubber sleeve of the old type male connector part is so much thicker than that of the new standard connector that without any disadvantage a considerable part of the silicon rubber sleeve of the old male connector part may be removed, so that it conforms to the VS-1 standard. This simple method solves a problem that has existed for years.
• the pacemaker manufacturer needs to produce only pacemakers having the female connector part of the standardized VS-1 connector, and adaptor pieces are no longer necessary.
• the manufacturers, the suppliers and the users need to keep in stock only a limited number of pacemakers, the users can exchange pace ⁇ makers made by different manufacturers and the surgeon is no longer confronted with the problem of having to fit the adaptor pieces to- gether with the pacemaker in the envelope under the skin.
• Another disadvantage of the use of adaptor pieces is that, in fact, two connections are made, which reduces reliability.
• one or more sealing ribs will be left extending from the surface of the sleeve of plastic material.
• these ribs seize on the inside wall of the female connector part so that corrosive body fluids are prevented from flowing into the pacemaker through the connector.
• the invention also relates to a device intended to be used with the above-mentioned method.
• this device comprises a casing having an opening for the insertion of a male connector part to be adapted, and at least one cutting,
• .milling or grinding device for the reduction of the diameter of the sleeve of plastic material of this connector part.
• a disposable device to be used only once.
• an advanced motor driven tool that comprises the above- mentioned cutting, milling or grinding device, and in which a suction device removes the chips.
• a tool o ' f which only the cutting, milling or grinding device and the receptacle of the chips is disposable.
• a tool of the non-disposable type can be made such,, that the cutting, milling or grinding device has the shape of a roller, of which the axis is movable in relation to two free - rotating supporting rollers, against spring action, between a position for inserting and a position for grinding.
• the three rollers are rotatably supported in an inner casing and driving means are provided for rotating the inner casing and ror rotating tne cutting, milling or grinding device.
• the cutting, milling or grinding device has to two axle stubs which protrude through bearings to which radial bars are fixed that protrude through said inner casing and are connected to electromagnetically movable devices for moving the bars radially outward.
• Fig. la shows a longitudinal sectional view of a male connector part for an old type pacemaker.
• Fig. lb shows the same longitudinal sectional view as fig. la but with the outer perimeter of the part to be removed indicated in phantom outline.
• Fig. lc shows the shape, obtained through cutting, milling or grinding, of the male connector part after its adaption to be insertable into a female connector part of a modern pacemaker.
• Fig. 2 shows a longitudinal sectional view of the tool designed for the removal of the material of the sleeve of the male connector part according to fig. la.
• Fig. 3 shows a sectional view along the line III-III in fig. 2.
• the male connector part according to fig. la comprises a metal core 1 (diameter 1.6 mm) connected by means of an electrode wire 2 with an electrode implanted in the heart of a person.
• a sleeve 3 (diameter circa 6 mm) made of silicon rubber. This sleeve has a number of sealing ribs - around its outer perimeter.
• the electric wire 2 extends through a blood vessel of a person to that person's heart.
• the male connector part fits into a female connector part of an obsolescent type pacemaker implanted in the breast of the person.
• Modern pacemakers are manufactured according to the VS-1 standard and have a female connector part with a smaller entrance diameter.
• the male connector part according to fig. la does not fit into the said female connector part.
• a part of the silicon rubber sleeve 3 f the male connector part is removed using a tool, so that the male connector part according to fig. lc is formed, which does fit into the female connector part of the VS-1 pacemaker.
• the invention is applied to a male connector part that has been implanted into the body and is at the end of an electrode wire which can hardly or not at all be removed, and that until now no one has invented adapting the silicon rubber sleeve of an operatively reachable male connector part having an outer diameter of circa 6 mm by means of cutting, milling or grinding, so as to reduce its outer diameter to 3-2 mm.
• a disposable milling tool can be used which - like a pencil sharpener - is placed around the connector sleeve, rotated by hand and then disposed of.
• a tool which can be re-used many times. It comprises a fixed casing 5 in which an inner casing 6 by means of bearings 7 is rotatably incorporated. Inside the casing there are two free - rotating supported supporting rollers 8 and a milling roller 9. of which the axle stumps 10 are movable up and down through elongated openings 11 and protrude through the end plates of the inner casing 6. The parallel axis lines of the rollers 8 and 9 are arranged in a triangle.
• a bearing ring 12 is fitted, to the housing of which a radial bar 13 is fixed which protrudes through an opening in the wall of the casing 6 and has one end fixed to a ring that can be moved radially outward by means of an electromagnetic control device 1-4.
• a pressure spring 13a Around each radial bar 13 there is a pressure spring 13a, that presses the bar radially inward.
• the bars 13, the bearing ring 12 and therefore the roller are moved radially outward against the action of the spring 1*4, so that the space which is present between the rollers 8, 9 becomes sufficiently large to allow a male connector part of the old type (fig. la) to be inserted into the tool.
• the electromagnets l- are de-energized, so that the connector part is gripped between rollers 8 and 9 * Driving means have been added to the tool in order to rotate the inner casing 6 and the milling roller 9 n opposite directions.
• the motor 15 is used for rotating the casing 6 .
• the torque of the motor is transmit ⁇ ted by means of a drive belt 16 and a pulley 17 to a drum 17b of the casing 6.
• a motor 18 is fitted to the casing 6, the torque of which is transmitted by means of two pulleys 19, 20 and a driving belt 21 to the axis of the roller 9-
• the casing 6 and the roller 9 are rotated in opposite directions, whereby the sleeve is milled down.
• the roller 9 there are recesses 22 for the purpose of forming the sealing ribs -4b.
• the connector part After the electromagnetic control devices have been energized once more, the connector part, of which the outer diameter has been reduced through the required size, may be withdrawn from the device.
• the chips of silicon rubber that remain in the casing 6 may be removed through the entrance opening of the case using a suction aduct not shown.
• the shown embodiment of the tool is merely an example.
• the invention consists first and foremost in the idea that a sleeve of a male connector part that has been implanted in a person, can be, in case a pacemaker is exchanged for a modern replacement, adapted with ease to match the inner diameter of the female connector part of the new pacemaker by means of cutting, milling or grinding.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• Radiology & Medical Imaging (AREA)
• Manufacturing & Machinery (AREA)
• Biomedical Technology (AREA)
• Nuclear Medicine, Radiotherapy & Molecular Imaging (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
• Animal Behavior & Ethology (AREA)
• General Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• Public Health (AREA)
• Veterinary Medicine (AREA)
• Electrotherapy Devices (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=19854114

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (3)

Cited By (3)

Families Citing this family (1)

Citations (3)

• 1989
  • 1989-02-10 NL NL8900334A patent/NL8900334A/nl not_active Application Discontinuation
• 1990
  • 1990-02-09 AU AU50905/90A patent/AU5090590A/en not_active Abandoned
  • 1990-02-09 WO PCT/NL1990/000016 patent/WO1990009207A1/en unknown

Patent Citations (3)

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