Negative pressure device
AssigneeSmith & Nephew, Inc.
InventorBryan Greener
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and apparatus are disclosed for providing negative pressure at a wound site. The apparatus includes a negative pressure reservoir and a reservoir valve for selectively connecting the reservoir to a wound chamber at a wound site. In particular, but not exclusively, the present invention relates to an apparatus including a source of negative pressure which acts as a negative pressure reservoir to continually or repeatedly “top up” an applied negative pressure so that negative pressure applied at a wound site can be maintained within desired limits for a relatively long period of time.
Claims20
-30. (canceled)
An apparatus for providing negative pressure at a wound site, comprising:
- a first negative pressure reservoir configured to a supply negative pressure at a first negative pressure level;
- a conduit configured to be in fluid communication with the first negative pressure reservoir and configured to supply the negative pressure from the first negative pressure reservoir to the wound site;
- a second negative pressure reservoir configured to supply negative pressure at a second negative pressure level, wherein the second negative pressure reservoir is configured to be in fluid communication with the first negative pressure reservoir;
- a valve configured to be in fluid communication with the first and second negative pressure reservoirs, the valve further configured to control the delivery of the negative pressure supplied by the second negative pressure reservoir to the first negative pressure reservoir by:
- opening to allow negative pressure stored in the second negative pressure reservoir to be supplied to the first negative pressure reservoir in response to the pressure in the first negative pressure reservoir increasing, and
- closing in response to the pressure in the first negative pressure reservoir reaching a desired negative pressure level;
- wherein the valve is configured to open in close in response to a pressure level in the first negative pressure reservoir.
A method of providing negative pressure at a wound site comprising:
- supplying, via a conduit, negative pressure from a first negative pressure reservoir to the wound site;
- and
- in response to a pressure in the first negative pressure reservoir increasing:
- opening a valve to allow negative pressure stored in a second negative pressure reservoir to be supplied to the first negative pressure reservoir, and
- closing the valve in response to the pressure in the first negative pressure reservoir reaching a desired negative pressure level.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.