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CAPPING _EVICE FOR CONDUIT CONMECrrOR
BACKGROUND OF T E INVEN'rION
Field of the Invention This in~ention relate~ to cappin~ devices associated with endotracheal tube connectors.
,, Backqround Art During continuous mechanical ventilation of patients, a eommon elinical practice involves the use of Positive End Expiratory Pressure, wherein the ventilator provides a speeific amount of pressure, measured in centimeters of water pressure, durin~ the expiratory phase c3f ventilatlon.
This "pressure breathing" faeilitates ventilating the entire lung system of the patient, and assists ths breathing of those with injuries or debilitating illnesse~
having breathing difficulties. The slight positive pressure of the ineoming air during gas assisk inhalation must be overcome during expiration, and suitable valves and pressure regulators are plaeed in the ventila~ion eireuit to allow for expiration.
It is often necessary to have aeeess to a patient's airways during mechanieal ventilation~ ~or example, one proeedure that i5 frequently earried out cluring Positive End Expiratory:Pressure-assisted ~reathing is bronchoseopy.
Bronehoseopy involves the insertion of a thin instrument, ealled a bro:nchoscope, lnto a patient's a.irways for visual .inspeetion Oe the patie:nt's lung and. hronehial passages~
:[f aecess i.F. not p:rovi.cled for in the venti.lati.on syst:eml the patient must be d:i.seonneeted from the ventilator prl.or to l.nse:rtion Oe the. hronchoscope.
U.S. Patent :No. 4,416,273 to Grimes shows a cap valve assemhly whieh has a eap that allows for the admission of a thin tubular instrument while keeping sealed the end of th.e c:onneetor through which ths instrument is lnserted.
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Howe~er the Gri~es cap suffers from the disadvantage that the only way to fully open the connector is to completely disconnect the cap from the connector thereby risking loss of the cap.
U.S. Patent No. 4 580 556 to Kondur discloses a plugged connector cap wherein hoth the plug and the cap are independently tied to the connector by cords. While the cap cord of Kondur permits removal of -the cap from its connector opening wlthout disconnectlnq -the cap from the connec-tor the cord can not be easily removed from the connector if it is desired to completely disconnect khe cap from the connector such as to replace the cap.
Accordingly there remains a need in the art for improvements in capping devices -for covering openings in conduit connectors~
_MMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a capping device for coverinq the mouth of an access port of a conduit connector and a combination of such a capping device with a conduit connector. The capping device includes a cap having a downwardly extending skirt and an access opening through which a bronchoscope catheter or other small diameter medical device may be inserted. The skirt includes an inwardly extending rim around its internal surface which detachably snaps over a lip around the mouth of the port.
The access opening is selectively sealable ~y a complementary plug that is tethered to the cap by a elexible tether strap. The capping clevice further includes a Elexible anchor strap extending Erom the cap which snaps ~0 onto a knob on-the condui-t connector -thereby retaining the cap on the connector when not covering the mouth oE the access port.
BRIEF DESCR PTION OE DRAWINGS, Figure l is a:n exploded, cross sectional view o~ the capping deviee and conneetor aceording to one emhodiment of the present invention.
Figure 2 is a top plan vi,ew of the embodiment shown in Figure 'L.
Figure 3 is a eross seetional view taken alany line
3-3 of Figure 2.
_ETAILED DESCRIP'rION OF THE PREFERRE~_EMBODIMENT
Referr.ing now to Figures 1 and 2~ there ls shown a eapping deviee 'L0 whieh ineludes a eap 12 and a plug 22 tethered to the eap 12 by a tether strap 24. The eap 'L2 ineludes a eover portion 14 which extends toward the center of the cap, leaving an aceess opening 20 which is sized to provide a substantially airtight fit with the body of examining instruments such as bronehoscope (not shown).
A eontinuous skirt 16 extends downwarclly from the cover portion 14. In the embodiment shown, the eapping deviee 10 is made in one piece of a soft elastomeri.c material, sueh as silieone rubber or thermoplastie elastomer.
A eonneetor 40, which is shown as being generally T-shaped, has three inlets 42, 52 and 54 to a eommon passageway within eonneetor 40. An aeeess port 50 provides aeeess -to inlet 42 via mouth 58, over whieh the eap 12 is snap-engaged. The eap is snapped in plaee on the eonneetor 40 by the engagement of a first inte:rio.r rirn 1.8 over a lip ~4 around the mouth 58 of the aecess port 50, ta :Eorm a seali,ng :E:i.t. A .seeond r:i.m 30, parallel to the ~irst rim l3~ may :be provided on the eap 'L2 to improve sea:Linq oE eap 12 over aeeess port 5(). The eonnector ~0 has rl ~nob eonveniently loeated adjac~ent the connec-to:r mouth 58, as shown in Fic~ure l.
The eapping clevic,e 10 a:Lso has an anchor strclp 26 which ex-tends from the cap 12. The aneh.or strap 26 has a keeper opening 28 which is snapped over the knob 48 on the connector 40 to anchor the capping device 10 to the connector 40 when :not covering the access port 50. As shown in Fig. 1., kno~ ~8 extends outwardly of access port 50 ~y means to a neck 56. qhe diameter of the keeper opening 28 is smaller than the diameter of the knob 48.
Thus, the anchor strap 26 is retained on the neck 56 after it is snapped over the knob 48. When the cap 12 is not sealing mouth 58, the neck 56 ailows the cap 12 to be easily rota-ted out the way of mouth 58 or perEorming a medical procedure through mouth 58. In the embodiment shown in Figures 2 and 3, the width o~ the anchor strap 26 is greater than the width of the te-ther strap 24, thereby making the ancho-r strap less flexible and less subject to t~Jisting than the tether strap. This facilitates rotation of anchor strap 26 about neck 56. For ease of operation the anchor strap 26 is made shorter than the tether strap 24 in the embodiment shown~ thereby preventing the capping device 10 from flopping about while it is anchored to the conneetor 40 by anchor strap 26 alone. As shown in Figures 1 and 2, a pull tab 34 may be provided on the plug 22 to allow the plug 22 to be more easily removed from -the access opening 20.
While the con:neetor shown in this embodiment is a reetangular, generally T-shaped connector it is understood that other types of connectors, such as Y-shaped ~onneetors, may al.so he used w:ith the cappi.ng dev:i.ce of the p:resent :i.nvent;.c)n.
Wherl a pat.i.en-t .is on mechln.i.cal ventilatlo~ i.t may be ctesirab:le to pass an examining lnstrument such as a brorlchoseope (not shown) into the patiarlt's airways ~eo:r visual examirlat1.orl the:reo:E. Also a patient on mechan:i.ccll.
ventil.ation may :requi-re Erequerlt suc-t:i.onirlc3 through a suction catheter (not shown) to maintain proper b:ronchial.
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hyyiene~ ~oth the bronchoscope and catheter are long, slender, tubular devices that may be inserte.d throuyh the endotracheal tube connector and endotracheal tube when in place.
A bronchoscope, catheter or other slender instru~ent of suitable diameter may be inserted through the access opening 20 of the cap 12. In preferred embodiments, the access opening 20 is about 3 to 4 mm (~14 to .15 in) in diameter and the resilience of the cap 12 allows the opening 20 to stretch to accomodate instruments up to about 8 mm in diameter. When a suitably sized instrument is inserted throu~h the access opening 20, the cover portion 14 squeezes about the inserted instrument, sealiny the access port 50 against loss of tidal volume. The present invention thus maintains positive system pressure while a suitahly si~ed bronchoscope or catheter is present within access opening 20 of cap 12. After the instrument is removed, the plug 22 may be quickly inserted into access opening 20 of cap 12 to reseal the opening.
In certain instances, such as for suctioning procedures which require an openi.ng larger than that provided by the access opening 20 in the cap 12, the cap 12 may be released from its position sealing the mouth 58 of access port 50. ~ecause the cap 12 :is flexible, it is readily released by unsnappiny the skirt 16 ~rom its position over the lip ~4 of the acce.ss port 50. Qnce the cap 12 .is disengaged :~rom lip ~4, a larye diameter suct.ioning catheter or other inst:rument may be inserted directly through ~outh 58 and inlet 42 o~ access port 50.
Because the cappin~ device lO remains attached to the connector ~0 by the anchcr strap 26, the cappiIly device 10 is rata:ined just out o~ the way of the procedure bei.ny per.~or~ed so that it may be qui.ckly replaced over the mouth 58 at the end o~ the procedure by snappiny the sk.irt 16 over the lip 44 of the access port 50. Also, the cappiny ~o~
device 10 can be completely snap-disengaged from the connector ~0, if desired, such as for cap replacement.
This can be carried out without disassembly of the ventilation tubing, as is required with some prior art devic~s.
A present invention provides a convenient-to-use capping device for covering a conduit connector mouth of a ventilating device. The capping device of the in~ention permits selective access through a selectively plugged access port for complementarily sized instruments. For access with larger size instruments, the cap can be snapped-disengaged from the mouth of the conduit connector and rotated completely out of the way of the conduit mouth, while remaining anchored to the conduit connector by a separately snap-engageable anchor strap.
Since many modifications, variations and changes in detail may be made to the described embodiment, it is intended that all matter in the forgoing description and shown in the accompanying drawings be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.