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US 5,019,038 AGranted
Irrigation system for surgical procedures
AssigneeHall Surgical Division of Zimmer, Inc.
InventorHarry A. Linden
Life of this patent
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AssigneeHall Surgical Division of Zimmer, Inc.
InventorHarry A. Linden
Estimating the term…
An irrigation system for cooling a surgical cutting tool, cutting site and/or flushing debris from the cutting site during surgery includes a first conduit connected to a source of sterile irrigation fluid and a second conduit adapted to be supported on the cutting tool to deliver irrigation fluid to the cutting site. The irrigation system further includes a lightweight disposable pump assembly for pumping the sterile irrigation fluid from the fluid source through the first and second conduits to the cutting site. The disposable pump assembly includes a pump chamber that communicates with the first and second conduits and a flexible pump member rotatable in the pump chamber. The pump assembly and conduits are in a presterile condition to permit immediate use by a physician and are discarded after the surgical operation is completed.
A method of irrigating a surgical cutting site during a surgical cutting operation comprising connecting a lightweight disposable pump assembly to a disposable tubing set, sterilizing the pump assembly and tubing set, packaging said sterile pump assembly and sterile tubing set in a container which maintains the sterile conditions, opening said container and removing said sterile disposable lightweight pump assembly and disposable tubing set, connecting the pump assembly and tubing set to a source of sterile irrigation fluid to deliver fluid to said surgical cutting site, irrigating the surgical cutting site during said surgical cutting, and discarding the pump assembly and the tubing set after completion of the surgical cutting operation.
A method of irrigating a surgical cutting site with a sterile irrigation fluid comprising connecting a disposable tubing set to a lightweight pump assembly and pumping fluid through the tubing set with a resilient multivane pump member by flexing the vanes during rotation of the pump member to create a pumping action between an inlet and an outlet of the pump chamber, interconnecting a source of sterile irrigation fluid to said inlet to pump fluid from the inlet to the outlet and to the surgical cutting site, and simultaneously irradiating the pump assembly and the inlet and outlet tubing connected thereto to sterilize the pump assembly and inlet and outlet tubing prior to connecting the inlet tubing to the source of sterile irrigation fluid.
A method of irrigating a surgical cutting site with a sterile irrigation fluid during a surgical operation which comprises the steps of
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.