Medical fluid drainage system
AssigneeEcole Polytechnique Federale De Lausanne (Epfl)
InventorsMarco Pisano, Valentina Triacca
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A medical fluid drainage system which may be advantageously used to actively absorb excess fluid from an interstitium in a living host and to transport it from an inlet member 1 in a non edematous body part out of an outlet member 4 via pumps (5, 6, 7) built in series, such as a distal area with functional lymphatic vessels, or directly in a lymphatic vessel, or directly in a blood vessel.
Claims16
A medical fluid drainage system for draining a fluid from an edematous space of a subcutaneous area of a living body comprising:
- N pumps, N being an integer number that is larger or equal to 2, the N pumps connected in series, the integer number N pumps limited by a size of the subcutaneous area for accommodating the N pumps, each having an inlet and an outlet;
- a first inlet member connected to the inlet of a first pump;
- N−1 inlet members providing fluidic connections between the N pumps;
- an outlet member connected to the outlet of a last pump;
- and
- a controller configured to provide a coordinated operation of the N pumps to provide for a fluid flow from the first and the N−1 inlet members towards the outlet member,
- wherein the N pumps, the first inlet member, the N−1 inlet members, and outlet member forming a fluid line,
- wherein each of the N−1 inlet members includes an entry point configured to allow the fluid to directly enter the fluid line,
- wherein the outlet member includes an exit point configured to allow the fluid to directly exit the fluid line, and
- wherein the controller is configured to control the N pumps such that first a pump among the N pumps located the most downstream is activated while remaining pumps of the N pumps are closed, and thereafter repeatedly activating a neighboring pump located upstream while keeping downstream pumps open.
A method of draining excess fluid from an edematous space of a subcutaneous area with a medical fluid drainage system, the system including,
- N pumps, N being an integer number that is larger or equal to 2, the N pumps connected in series, the integer number N pumps limited by a size of the subcutaneous area for accommodating the N pumps, each having an inlet and an outlet;
- a first inlet member connected to the inlet of a first pump;
- N−1 inlet members providing fluidic connections between the N pumps;
- and
- an outlet member connected to the outlet of a last pump,
- wherein the N pumps, the first inlet member, the N−1 inlet members, and outlet member forming a fluid line, each of the N−1 inlet members includes an entry point configured to allow a fluid to directly enter the fluid line, and the outlet member includes an exit point configured to allow the fluid to directly exit the fluid line,
- the method comprising the steps of:
- implanting the system in a living host, by positioning the first inlet member in the edematous space and by positioning the outlet member in a non-edematous space;
- and
- activating and coordinating the N pumps to drain fluid from the edematous space to the non-edematous space through the fluid line, the activating and coordinating including a controlling of the N pumps such that first a pump among the N pumps located the most downstream is activated while remaining pumps of the N pumps are closed, and thereafter successively activating a neighboring pump located upstream while keeping downstream pumps open.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.