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 suction pump for generating negative pressure, a negative pressure reservoir, a valve element arranged to selectively provide a fluid communication path between the reservoir and the wound site while a negative pressure in the negative pressure reservoir is greater than a threshold negative pressure, to thereby provide a desired negative pressure at the wound site, and wherein in response to a pressure in the negative pressure reservoir decreasing to the threshold negative pressure, the suction pump is operable to re-establish an initial negative pressure in the negative pressure reservoir.
Claims28
-54. (canceled)
A method of manufacture of a channel for selectively providing a fluid communication path, the method comprising:
- placing between two forming bars a tubing made of a plastic material that reversibly self-seals when the plastic material comes into contact with itself;
- heating at least one of the two forming bars;
- compressing between the two forming bars a first portion of the tubing;
- cooling the tubing;
- and
- releasing the tubing from between the two forming bars.
A vacuum pressure regulator valve produced by a process comprising:
- compressing two opposing side walls of a first portion of a tube toward one another in a direction transverse to a longitudinal axis of the tube to move the opposing side walls into a deformed configuration;
- heating the first portion to a deforming temperature while maintaining the first portion in the deformed configuration;
- maintaining the first portion in the deformed configuration at the deforming temperature for a duration of time;
- and
- cooling the first portion to a setting temperature after the duration of time has elapsed, wherein at least a portion of the first portion collapses when an internal pressure within the tube is reduced compared to an external pressure outside the tube such that a flow path through a central lumen of the tube is blocked by a sidewall of the tube, the first portion configured to maintain the flow path open when the internal pressure equals the external pressure.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.