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US 2014/0109914 A1Published application
Endotracheal cuff and technique for using the same
AssigneeCovidien LP
InventorsDonald S. Nelson, Dhairya Mehta
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An inflatable balloon cuff may be adapted to seal a patient's trachea when associated with an endotracheal tube. Configurations of these cuffs that include tapered regions with certain characteristics, such as cuff wall diameter and thickness, may provide improved sealing of the trachea.
Claims18
An inflatable balloon cuff comprising:
- a tapered section along at least 30% of the length along an axis of the inflated balloon cuff, wherein at least a portion of the tapered section is configured to form a seal against a tracheal wall of a patient, wherein the tapered section comprises a balloon wall with continuously varying thickness along the tapered section, and wherein the tapered section comprises:
- a sealing portion, wherein the sealing portion is adapted to form a wrinkle-free band against a patient's tracheal wall when inflated, wherein the wrinkle-free sealing band is configured to prevent leakage of fluid past the wrinkle-free sealing band when inflated;
- and
- a wrinkled portion, wherein a largest diameter of the wrinkled portion is larger than a tracheal diameter such that the wrinkled portion forms a wrinkled band against a patient's tracheal wall when inflated and wherein the wrinkled band is longer than the wrinkle-free band, wherein the wrinkle-free band has a first balloon wall thickness greater than a second balloon wall thickness in the wrinkled portion.
1 more element
An inflatable balloon cuff comprising:
- a tapered section comprising a balloon wall with continuously varying thickness along the tapered section, wherein at least a portion of the tapered section is adapted to form a wrinkle-free sealing band against a patient's tracheal wall when the inflatable balloon cuff is inflated to an intracuff pressure of 10-30 cm H2O;
- and wherein at least a portion of the tapered section is adapted to form a wrinkled band against the tracheal wall, wherein the wrinkled band is adjacent to and longer than the wrinkle-free sealing band when the balloon cuff is inflated within the trachea and wherein the wrinkle-free band has a first balloon wall thickness greater than a second balloon wall thickness in the wrinkled band.
An inflatable balloon cuff comprising:
- a tapered section running along at least 30% of a length of the inflatable balloon cuff, wherein at least a portion of the tapered section is adapted to form a wrinkle-free sealing band at least 1 mm in length against a patient's tracheal wall when the inflatable balloon cuff is inflated to an intracuff pressure of 10-30 cm H2O;
- and wherein at least a portion of the tapered section is adapted to form a wrinkled band against the tracheal wall, wherein the wrinkled band is longer than the wrinkle-free sealing band when the balloon cuff is inflated within the trachea and wherein the wrinkle-free band has a first balloon wall thickness greater than a second balloon wall thickness in the wrinkled band.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.