Vacuum flow visualization

A vacuum system for applying vacuum to the body cavity of a patient where a vacuum flow indicator is provided that provides a visual display of the relative flow in a vacuum line to a medical patient. The vacuum indictor has indicia indicative of the no flow condition, a low flow condition, a high flow condition of flow through the vacuum system and has a space between the indicia of high flow and no flow so that the caregiver can visually get a quick and easy perception of the relative flow through the system. The vacuum flow indicator is not intended to be an accurate means of measuring that flow but only a guide that can aid the caregiver in determining and correcting a potential or real problem in the vacuum system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Turning now to FIG. 1 , there is shown a front view of a vacuum control module 10 constructed in accordance with the present invention. In this Figure, the vacuum control module 10 comprises a housing 12 that may be a standard gauge formed metal or molded plastic enclosure and which contains the various components that combine to make up the vacuum system. In particular, there is an outlet, not shown in FIG. 1 , that is adapted to be connected to a wall source of vacuum such as the normal wall vacuum line that is commonly located in hospital rooms and such vacuum outlet is normally provided in the rear of the vacuum control module 10 . An inlet 14 is also affixed to the enclosure 12 and receives the flow of fluid from a patient so that the patient actually sees the level of vacuum established by the vacuum control module 10 to control the flow of the fluids from the patient in removing the fluids from that patient. As is also a standard component of vacuum systems, there is also a vacuum gauge 16 that is affixed to the enclosure and thus is a part of the vacuum control module 10 . The vacuum gauge 16 has a front face that enables the caregiver to visually perceive the level of the vacuum that is desired to be applied to the patient. That level of vacuum to the patient is controlled, conventionally, by a regulator 18 that comprises an actuator and a knob that can be rotated by the caregiver to establish and change the level of the vacuum to the patient. The vacuum regulator 18 is also affixed to the enclosure 12 so as to be conveniently located for the user to activate the regulator 18 while observing the level of the vacuum by means of the vacuum gauge 16 . As a new component, however, the vacuum system includes a vacuum flow indicator 20 also affixed to the enclosure 12 and which provides a visual indication to the caregiver of the relative amount of flow in the vacuum line and thus an indication of flow from the patient. As can be seen, the vacuum flow indicator 20 has a visually perceptible range of values, and therefore, there is a no flow indicia 22 that would be located at the bottom of the vertically oriented embodiment of the vacuum flow indicator 20 of FIG. 1 as well as a high flow indicia 24 that would be located at the top of the vacuum flow indicator 20 . There is also a finite space or range that is located between the no flow indicia 22 and the high flow indicia 24 so that the caregiver can quick visual indication of the relative flow, that is, where the flow is intermediate the no and high flow of the system. The no flow or zero flow condition is important as it provides an indication that the system has been set up properly and is the one point that the flow condition as displayed by the vacuum flow indicator 20 is assured to be accurate. Turning briefly to FIG. 2 , there is shown, a front view of an alternate embodiment to that of FIG. 1 and wherein the vacuum flow indicator 20 is located within the circular outer periphery of the indicia that are on the front face of the vacuum gauge 16 so that the caregiver can quickly and positively locate and visually read values for the level of vacuum by the vacuum gauge 16 as well as the flow in the vacuum line as visually perceived by means of the vacuum flow indicator 20 . Next, in FIG. 3 , there is a schematic view of a typical vacuum system that includes the vacuum flow indicator 20 of the present invention. In the FIG. 3 embodiment the vacuum flow indicator 20 is located between the outlet 26 that is adapted to be connected to the hospital wall supply of vacuum and the vacuum regulator 18 so that the flow displayed by the vacuum flow indicator 20 will be the flow downstream of the vacuum regulator 18 . As also can be seen in FIG. 3 , the vacuum flow indicator 20 is basically a conventional flow tube 28 , commonly used with pressure flow systems, and which comprises a float 30 that is located within the flow tube 28 and is therefore indicative of the flow passing downstream of the vacuum regulator 18 to the wall vacuum system. The height of the float 30 indicates the flow therein through the flow tube 28 such that the higher the float 30 is located the higher the flow through that flow tube 28 . The use of a flow tube device is well known with pressure flow systems and the technology for the flow tube in a vacuum system also with the purview of one skilled in that art. In any event, turning now to FIG. 4 , the is shown a further schematic view wherein the vacuum flow indicator 20 of the present invention is located upstream of the vacuum regulator 18 and the vacuum gauge 16 and thus will read the flow of the material from the patient to the vacuum flow regulator 18 . Finally, in FIG. 5 , there is shown a still further schematic where the vacuum flow indicator 20 is located between the vacuum regulator 18 and the vacuum gauge 16 and will indicate the flow intermediate the vacuum regulator 18 and the vacuum gauge 16 . As can be seen by the FIG. 3 - 5 embodiments, it is not necessary that the vacuum flow indicator 20 be incorporated into or as a part of the housing containing the other vacuum controls as was the case with the FIG. 1 and 2 embodi 8 ments but can simply be an in line flow indicator. Though not the preferred embodiment, such an in line flow indicator could also provide the flow indication functions. Thus, as can be seen, the vacuum flow indicator 20 can be positioned in a number of differing locations depending upon the flow desired to be monitored and the purpose of the vacuum flow indicator 20 . In each instance, however, the vacuum flow indicator 20 provides a visual indication that can be easily and quickly perceived by the caregiver to obtain a relative flow, albeit not quantitatively accurate, by having a no flow indicia, a high flow indicia and some space between the indicia of no flow and high flow to enable the caregiver to perceive a general idea of the relative low in the desired area of the vacuum system. Those skilled in the art will readily recognize numerous adaptations and modifications which can be made to the vacuum flow visualization system of the present invention which will result in an improved system yet all of which will fall within the scope and spirit of the present invention as defined in the following claims. Accordingly, the invention is to be limited only by the following claims and their equivalents.