Manual venting and cutting apparatus for ostomy pouches

Abstract

A manual gas venting and cutting apparatus for use in cutting an opening in and manually venting gas from the interior of a conventional unvented ostomy collection pouch includes a valve assembly having an open position, which permits gas to pass therethrough and a closed position, for preventing gas to pass therethrough. The valve assembly has an input portion for communicating with the interior of the ostomy collection pouch and an output portion for communicating with the atmosphere and a mounting device for mounting the valve assembly to a selected portion of the ostomy collection pouch. The mounting device releasably contains therein a portion of the valve assembly so as to position the input portion thereof proximate the interior of the ostomy collection pouch, and the output portion of the valve assembly proximate to the atmosphere. Also included is a cutting device for providing a geometrically-shaped opening through the ostomy collection pouch, which provides access to the interior thereof utilizing the valve mounting device which, after the opening has been made, is replaced by the valve assembly.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.