Aspirating/ventilating apparatus and method

An indwelling ventilating/aspirating apparatus by which a medical patient is subjected to involuntary respiratory therapy and by which fluids from the trachea and/of bronchi are evacuated, the apparatus comprising:

• an elongated sterile aspirating catheter tube comprising relatively small inside and and outside diameters, an essentially free distal end for manual insertion into the trachea/bronchi of the patient, a free central portion not subjected to mechanical manipulation, a constrained proximal end, and suction port means disposed at said distal end;
• a sterility preserving collspsible envelope essentially surrounding the catheter tube and comprising an elongated sack comprising a thin wall having a transverse dimension configuration substantially greater than the outside diamater of the catheter tube, the envelope further comprising a distal end and a proximal end, the envelope maintaining sterility of the catheter tube while accomodating manual manipulation of the catheter tube to and fro by externally collapsing the envelope upon the catheter tube;
• first force-fit coupling means comprising central means accommodating manual reciprocation of the catheter tube therethrough, releasable clamp means comprising means compressively securing and sealing the distal end of the envelope at the first coupling means;
• second force-fit coupling means comprising means receiving and anchoring the proximal end of the catheter tube against relative displacement, clamp means comprising means at least in part compressively securing and sealing the proximal end of the envelope at the second coupling means;
• tracheostomy fitting means comprising first port means comprising means connecting the fitting means with the first force-fit coupling means and means for reciprocably and guidingly receiving the catheter tube, second port means through which ventilating air is introduced from the fitting means into and exhausted from the lungs of the patient and through which the aspirating catheter tube is displaced into and removed from the patient's trachea/bronchi, third port means by which oxygenated air passes into the fitting means and forth port means by which air discharged from the lungs is exhausted from the fitting means;
• and
• vacuum control means comprising valve means, means by which vacuum suction is communicated to the valve means, means by which the second coupling means are connected to the valve means, biased internal seal means associated with the valve means, means by which the valve means may be selectively manually locked in a closed position to prohibit inadvertent as well as intentional actuation of the valve means, means by which the valve means may be selectively manually placed in an unlocked position accommodating subsequent selective manual actuation of the valve means, means by which the valve means are manually displaced from the unlocked closed position to an unlocked open position accommodating aspiration of fluids from the trachea-bronchi of the patient along the catheter tube and across the valve means responsive to communication of said vacuum suction to the distal tip of the catheter tube, and means which isolate said vacuum suction from access to the atmosphere;
• the valve means comprising manually responsive plunger means and the seal means comprising elastic means having memory which elastic means are in stretch fit relation with the plunger means whereby the seal means functions to both bias itself and the plunger toward the closed position and to seal the vacuum suction away from the catheter tube when biased into the closed position.

A ventilating and aspirating assembly comprising:

• an aspirating catheter tube internally disposed within said coextensive with a surrounding flexible collapsible sterility preserving envelope;
• connector means by which ventilating air is involuntarily delivered to and exhausted from the lungs of a medical patient, said connector means comprising means accommodating the manual insertion of one end of the catheter tube into and manual removal from the trachea/bronchi of the patient through the connector means to facilitate aspiration of undesired respiratory fluids, and means detachably connecting one end of the envelope to the connector means;
• and
• normally closed valve structure by which aspirating vacuum pressure is selectively communicated to the interior of the catheter tube for evacuation of said fluids, the valve structure comprising valve means, valve body means in which the valve means may be manually displaced, the valve body means comprising bore means connected to the other end of said catheter tube and which at all times isolate the valve means vacuum pressure from the atmosphere, actuator means by which the valve means are place in either of a locked or an unlocked condition and means normally simultaneously biasing and sealing the valve means in a closed position, but accommodating on-going manual displacement counter to the bias into an unsealed open position and manual retention of the valve means in the open position counter to the bias whereby, with the catheter tube indwelling, the vacuum pressure causes evacuation of fluid from the patient's respiratory system through the catheter tube and the bore means of the valve body means;
• means detachably connecting a second end of the envelope to the valve body means.

A method of using a ventilating/aspirating assembly comprising the step of:

• linearly force-fit connecting, without twisting or threading, the distal and proximal ends of a sterility preserving flexible manually collapsible envelope respectively between a ventilating/aspirating fitting and a manual normally closed aspirating sealed and internally sterile control valve, stationarily connecting the proximal end of aspirating catheter tube to the control valve, which catheter tube is coextensively disposed within the envelope, and slidably associating the distal end of the catheter tube with the ventilating/aspirating fitting, selectively manually advancing the distal end of the catheter tube through the fitting by manipulation of the catheter tube from outside the envelope a desired distance into the respiratory system of a patient while a vacuum suction is isolated from both the atmosphere and the catheter tube, manually actuating and manually maintaining the actuation of the control valve, when the distal end of the catheter tube is properly placed within said respiratory sytsem, to displace and unseat an internal sterile seal within the valve counter to the normally closed seal bias for a time sufficient to evacuate said fluids from the respiratory system, manually releasing the valve to oppositely displace and seat the seal responsive to said bias thereby once more isolating the vacuum suction from the atmosphere and from the catheter tube to thereby terminate said evacuation, continuously isolating said vacuum suction and catheter tube from the atmosphere during both seating and unseating of the seal within the valve, and manually retracting the catheter tube from the respiratory system by manipulation through the envelope.