Balloon assembly for esophageal probe
AssigneeJacques Chevallier
InventorJean-Pierre Bazenet
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An intracorporal probe has a flexible and generally nontwistable element having front and rear ends, a flexible and continuous sleeve substantially surrounding and loosely receiving the element between its ends, and a sensor unit mounted on the front end of the element past the sleeve and itself having a front end. Thus twisting of the rear end of the element will twist the sensor unit and will twist the element relative to the sleeve. A forwardly tapered and flexible tip is carried on the front sensor end and a balloon is engaged around the unit between the tip and the sleeve at the front element end. The tip is mainly formed of silicone of a hardness between 50 shore and 100 shore.
Claims12
An intracoporal probe comprising:
- a flexible and generally nontwistable element having front and rear ends;
- a flexible and continuous sleeve substantially surrounding and loosely receiving the element between its ends;
- a sensor unit mounted on the front end of the element past the sleeve and itself having a front end, whereby twisting of the rear end of the element will twist the sensor unit and will twist the element relative to the sleeve;
- a forwardly tapered and flexible tip carried on the front sensor end;
- and
- a balloon engaged around the unit between the tip and the sleeve at the front element end, the tip being mainly formed of silicone of a hardness between 50 Shore and 100 Shore, the balloon and tip being unitary, the tip having a wholly elastomeric body formed with a rearwardly open recess and being provided with a nonelastomeric plug fixed thereon and rotationally coupled to the sensor unit.
An intracoporal probe comprising:
- a flexible and generally nontwistable element having front and rear ends;
- a flexible and continuous sleeve substantially surrounding and loosely receiving the element between its ends;
- a sensor unit mounted on the front end of the element past the sleeve and itself having a front end, whereby twisting of the rear end of the element will twist the sensor unit and will twist the element relative to the sleeve;
- a forwardly tapered and flexible tip carried on the front sensor end;
- and
- a balloon engaged around the unit between the tip and the sleeve at the front element end, the tip having a wholly elastomeric body formed with a rearwardly open recess and being provided with a nonelastomeric plug fixed thereon and rotationally coupled to the sensor unit.
An intracoporal probe comprising:
- a flexible and generally nontwistable element having front and rear ends;
- a flexible and continuous sleeve substantially surrounding and loosely receiving the element between its ends;
- a sensor unit mounted on the front end of the element past the sleeve and itself having a front end, whereby twisting of the rear end of the element will twist the sensor unit and will twist the element relative to the sleeve;
- a forwardly tapered and flexible tip carried on the front sensor end;
- and
- a balloon engaged around the unit between the tip and the sleeve at the front element end, the element having an inner spring coil, an outer spring coil of opposite hand wound tightly around the inner coil over the entire length thereof while the inner coil extends the full length of the outer coil, and another sleeve engaged tightly around the outer coil, said coils each having the successive turns thereof directly in contact with one another.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.