Chest enclosures for ventilators

Abstract: A chest enclosure for inducing assisted ventilation of the lungs of a patient, when combined with an air oscillator. The chest enclosure comprises a stiff but flexible plastic tunnel (1) member adapted to cover the chest, provided at its upper and its lower end with an air-impermeable flexible cushion, a band (6) of flexible material extending from along the entire lateral edges of the tunnel (1), said bands (6, 7) extending to behind the back of the patient in an overlapping relationship, means being provided for the attachment of the bands (6, 7) with each other, an air passageway (10) being provided into the enclosure for connection to an air oscillator.

Description: The present invention relates to a chest enclosure for use in producing assisted ventilation of the lungs of a patient when combined with an air oscillator. In medical practice it is frequently necessary to assist the breathing of a patient. Most frequently this is done by intubating the patient and applying periodic positive air pressure through the intubation into the patient's lungs. Intubation is associated with a number of clinical and practical disadvantages. The alternative to intubation is to use some form of external ventilator apparatus. Known forms of external ventilator apparatus have suffered from the disadvantages that, if effective, they do not permit the patient any mobility and are of a high cost. One known form of external ventilator apparatus is the so-called "iron lung" in which the patient is totally contained from the neck downward. An alternative form of external ventilator apparatus is the so-called "cuirass ventilator" which typically comprises a hard plate to fit against the patient's back and a turtle shell like chest cover which fits over the patient's chest leaving room for expansion of the chest and which is attached to the rear plate, e.g. by straps. The chest cover is intended to seal against the patient's chest and has a padded rim for sealing. Typically, the straps holding the chest cover in place run at the level of the small of the back of the patient well below the axilla. The chest cover is entirely rigid and proper fitting of the chest cover to a particular patient is a problem. For best results, the chest cover really needs to be tailor-made for the patient. In order to maintain a satisfactory seal between the chest cover and the patient's body, it is necessary that the patient remains still and lying down. The rigid nature of the chest cover and the line along which the straps holding the chest cover down on the patient's chest run restrict the movement of the ribs and hence the breathing action produced by the use of the apparatus. This leads to poor efficacy. The chest covers are normally made from fibreglass and are expensive, particularly if tailor-made for the patient. Each size of fibreglass chest cover will fit only a very restricted range of size of patient. Therefore, to fit patients from the size of babies to large adults, requires a very large number of different chest covers. Ventilator apparatus of this kind has been available for at least sixty years without being substantially improved to overcome the difficulties set out above. FR-A-329506 describes a chest enclosure made from a strong material such as sheet metal, hardened rubber or paste board. The enclosure has flaps extending from its side edges which extend toward one another around the patients back but which do not meet. Their ends are joined by a buckled strap. A thin sealing bead is provided around the edge of the enclosure. Although this chest enclosure according to FR-A-329506 has drawbacks as regards the sealing as well as the efficiency of the applied pressure and has been known for more than 85 years, it has as such not been substantially improved to overcome these disadvantages. The present invention provides a chest enclosure for use in producing assisted ventilation of the lungs of a patient comprising:- (a) a chest-covering tunnel member, said tunnel member having first and second ends and being dimensioned such that the first end lies over the patient's sternum and the second end lies beyond the patient's diaphragm; (b) means for fastening said tunnel member to the patient; and (c) an air passageway into said enclosure for connection in use to an air oscillator; characterised in that: (1) said tunnel member is of resilient plastics; (2) a wall member is present at each end of the tunnel member, each wall member having a concave radially inner periphery for sealing against the front surface of a patient's body and being of air-impermeable, flexible cushioning material; (3) respective bands of flexible, air-impermeable material extend from each of the longitudinal edges of the tunnel member for wrapping in mutually overlapping relationship around the chest region of a patient's back; and (4) said means for fastening said tunnel member to the patient are constituted by means for fastening said bands in said overlapping relationship. Preferably, one end of the tunnel member (that nearer the patient's neck in use) has a central forwardly extending tongue portion. This places the line of contact against the patient's body as near to the sternum as possible so as to least affect expansion of the rib cage. Preferably, the plastics material is of from 0.5 to 3 mm thick, more preferably from 0.75 to 2.25 mm thick, e.g. 1 mm or 2 mm thick. Suitably, a thinner plastics material is employed for smaller enclosures. In enclosures for adults, a more substantial thickness of plastics material is appropriate because of the greater area and the greater liability to flex and collapse when partially evacuated. Suitably, the plastics material is polycarbonate. Alternatively, it may be a plastics material having approximately the same stiffness and flexibility as polycarbonate sheet of from 1 to 2 mm thickness. Preferably, the plastics material is transparent. The wall members are preferably of closed-cell foam. Preferably, each said wall member has a radially outer portion of relatively hard foam material (e.g. neoprene foam) and a radially inner portion of relatively soft foam material (e.g. pvc foam). This provides good cushioning against the patient's body helping to allow free movement of the ribs whilst helping to prevent collapse of the relatively stiff but nonetheless flexible plastics shell member without preventing outward or inward flexing of the side wall portions of the tunnel member to accommodate the enclosure to a substantial range of patient sizes. Preferably, each of said bands is of such a width as to extend from substantially the whole length of each said edge of the tunnel member. Preferably, the bands are of closed-cell foam, suitably the same closed-cell foam as is used for the relatively soft closed-cell foam in the preferred form of end wall or foam of similar softness. One of the said bands is preferably shorter than the other and in use is positioned inside the other. Preferably, one of said bands is thicker than the other. For instance, the thinner may be approximately 5 mm thick and the other may be approximately 1 cm thick. Preferably, the longer band is the thicker. Preferably, the band which is to be innermost in said overlapping relationship in use is wider at its free end than the outer said band where the outer band overlaps said free end. This may be accomplished by the inner band being of trapezoidal shape with its free end being the wider of its parallel sides and being wider than the outer band. This provides a readily grasped portion of the inner band which is not overlapped by the outer band and which can be held whilst positioning the inner band and the outer band around a patient. The free end of the outer band is preferably attachable by said fastening means to the opposite side of the tunnel member. It is particularly preferred that the fastening means acts to apply sealing tension to the outer band generally in line with each end of the tunnel member. In a suitably sized enclosure, this will result in one sealing band being tensioned approximately beneath the armpits of the patient and the other beneath the diaphragm so that the ribs are left free to expand the chest. This is in distinction to the arrangement in previously known cuirass type apparatus where the ribs are severely constricted by tensioning bands running just above the diaphragm. Preferably therefore, the fastening means include a pair of strap members running generally parallel to one another from side of the tunnel member, each fixed to the outer band and extending therebeyond, and each co-operating with joining means attached to the opposite side of the tunnel member. The joining means may be VELCRO type pads and co-operating VELCRO type material may be provided on the extending portions of the strap members or the strap members may be entirely of such material. By VELCRO type, is meant any releasable and reusable fabric joining system in which tiny fabric hooks on the surface of one piece of material are joinable to tiny upstanding fabric loops on the co-operating surface of another piece of material. The invention includes a ventilator for use in producing assisted ventilation of the lungs of a patient comprising such an enclosure together with an air oscillator. The air oscillator may be of any conventional type. In particular, the oscillator may be as described in European Patent Specification No. 0192337. The present invention will be illustrated by the following description of a preferred embodiment with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:- Figure 1 is a side elevation of an enclosure according to the invention, Figure 2A is a top end elevation of the enclosure of Figure 1, Figure 2B is a bottom end elevation of the same enclosure, and Figure 3 is a plan view of the enclosure of Figures 1 and 2 in an opened condition. As shown in Figure 1, an enclosure according to the invention comprises a tunnel member of polycarbonate plastics 1 mm thick, formed from polycarbonate. The polycarbonate sheet has a forwardly protruding tongue 2. At each end of the tunnel member 1 is secured by adhesive a generally crescent-shaped piece of dense, comparatively hard, closed-cell foam 3 which extends slightly beyond the edges of the tunnel member. At each end of the tunnel member, to the interior face of the crescent of hard foam 3, is secured a crescent-shaped piece of softer closed cell foam 4 which extends beyond the ends of the harder foam crescent 3. The softer and harder foams may be secured together by adhesive. Preferably, the adhesive is such that the two foam layers can be separated without damage to the harder foam layer. The softer foam layer may be replaceable. Preferably, the softer foam layer is made from foam sheets of the kind in which a layer of adhesive is provided covered by a release sheet which is removable to expose the adhesive. A pair of male VELCRO ™ type pads 5 are provided on the outer surface of the tunnel member running from one longitudinal free edge up towards the apex of the tunnel member. One runs directly adjacent the square cut end of the tunnel member. The other runs parallel from the opposite bottom corner of the tunnel member behind the protruding tongue portion 2. A slightly trapezoidal-shaped wide band 6 of soft foam material of a closed-cell type is secured along the free edge of the tunnel member beneath the pads 5. The narrower end of the band is secured to the tunnel member and the wider end is free. The thickness of the foam material employed for this band is about 0.5 cm. Extending from the opposite free longitudinal edge of the tunnel member is a longer and thicker band 7 of similar closed-cell foam material, e.g. about 1 cm thick which is of rectangular shape and of a width corresponding to that of the smaller end of band 6. Parallel strips 8 of female VELCRO type material are secured by adhesive to the tunnel member and along each long edge of the band 7 and portions 9 of each strip 8 extend from the free end of the band 7. Toward the square cut end of the tunnel member 1 symmetrically disposed about the longitudinal mid-line thereof are provided a pair of apertures 10 into which are pushed the ends of respective rubber tubes 11 which are jointed by a T-piece 12 to provide an inlet/outlet 13 for connection to an air oscillator. A small aperture 14 is provided in the tunnel member in the mid-line thereof to allow the introduction of a tube 15 for monitoring the air pressure in the enclosure in use. The manner of use of the enclosure described is as follows. The tunnel member is placed over the chest of the patient with the tongue portion 2 toward the patient's chin. That end of the enclosure should lie over the patient's sternum and the opposite end should lie below the patient's diaphragm. The shorter band 6 is pulled across the patient's back and the longer band 7 is pulled over the shorter band 6. The shorter band 6 can easily be gripped by virtue of its trapezoidal shape. Suitable tension is applied and the VELCRO type fastenings 9 and 5 are connected together. The ends of the crescent shape of foam 4 should extend far enough to lie against the patient's back. The inlet/outlet 13 is then connected to an air oscillator which is operated to ventilate the patient's lungs. The enclosure described offers a substantial number of advantages over those previously employed. Because of the manner of its construction it will be very substantially cheaper to produce then the fibreglass shell type cuirass ventilator apparatus previously known. Because of the lateral flexibility of the tunnel member, each size of enclosure can fit a much wider range of patient sizes so that fewer sizes of enclosure need to be produced. By virtue of the large depth of foam in each end wall, and the flexibility of the tunnel member the patient is rendered mobile and an adequate airtight seal will not be lost through reasonable patient movement. The patient can be dressed when using the apparatus but if desired, for instance because there has been contact with the patient's skin, the soft foam lining of the end wall members can easily be replaced when one patient has finished with the enclosure. The transparent material employed in the preferred embodiment enables the patient's chest to be seen where this is desirable and is X-ray transparent. The enclosure can very rapidly be placed on a patient and is sufficiently simple to attach for a patient of competent age to be able to put on himself. Therefore, the apparatus is not restricted to use in hospitals but will be suitable for use by patients at home who may obtain significant benefit in some medical conditions from using the ventilator for a limited period during the day. The flexibility of the tunnel member is such that whilst it will resist the forces produced by partial evaculation in use, it is still possible to apply cardiac massage through the enclosure. Whilst the invention has been described with reference to the illustrated embodiment, many modifications and variations thereof are possible within the scope of the invention.

Claims: A chest enclosure for use in producing assisted ventilation of the lungs of a patient, comprising: (a) a chest-covering tunnel member (1), said shell member (1) having first and second ends and being dimensioned such that the first end lies over the patient's sternum and the second end lies beyond the patient's diaphragm; (b) means (5, 8, 9) for fastening said tunnel member (1) to the patient; and (c) an air passageway (11) into said enclosure for connection in use to an air oscillator; characterised in that: (1) said tunnel member is of resilient plastics; (2) a wall member (3, 4) is present at each end of the tunnel member (1), each wall (3, 4) member having a concave radially inner periphery for sealing against the front surface of a patient's body and being of air-impermeable, flexible cushioning material; (3) respective bands (6, 7) of flexible, air-impermeable material extend from each of the longitudinal edges of the tunnel member (1) for wrapping in mutually overlapping relationship around the chest region of a patient's back; and (4) said means (5, 8, 9) for fastening said tunnel member (1) to the patient are constituted by means (5, 8, 9) for fastening said bands (6, 7) in said overlapping relationship. An enclosure as claimed in Claim 1, characterised in that the tunnel member (1) is formed from polycarbonate plastics. An enclosure as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 2, characterised in that said first end of the tunnel member (1) has a central forwardly extending tongue portion (2). An enclosure as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that said plastics material is from 0.5 to 3 mm thick. An enclosure as claimed in Claim 4, characterised in that said plastics material is from 0.75 to 2.25 mm thick. An enclosure as claimed in Claim 1, characterised in that said plastics material has approximately the same resilience as a polycarbonate sheet of from 1 to 2 mm thickness. An enclosure as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that said tunnel member (1) is transparent. An enclosure as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that said wall members (3, 4) are of closed-cell foam. An enclosure as claimed in Claim 8, characterised in that said wall members (3, 4) each have a radially outer portion (3) of relatively hard foam material and a radially inner portion (4) of relatively soft foam material. An enclosure as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that each of said bands (6, 7) is of such a width as to extend from substantially the whole length of each said edge of the tunnel member (1). An enclosure as claimed in Claim 10, characterised in that said bands (6, 7) are of closed-cell foam. An enclosure as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that one of said bands (6, 7) is shorter than the other. An enclosure as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that one of said bands (6, 7) is thicker than the other. An enclosure as claimed in Claim 13, when dependent on Claim 12, characterised in that the longer band (7) is the thicker. An enclosure as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the band (6) which is to be innermost in said overlapping relationship in use is wider at its free end than the outer said band (7) where the outer band (7) overlaps said free end. An enclosure as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the free end of said outer band (7) is attachable by said fastening means (8, 9) to the opposite side of the tunnel member (1). An enclosure as claimed in Claim 16, characterised in that said fastening means (8, 9) acts to apply sealing tension to said outer band (7) generally in line with each end of the tunnel members (1). An enclosure as claimed in Claim 16 or Claim 17, characterised in that said fastening means (8, 9) includes a pair of strap members running generally parallel to one another from one side of the tunnel member (1), each fixed to the outer band (7) and extending therebeyond, and each co-operating with joining means (5) attached to the opposite side of said tunnel member (1). An enclosure as claimed in Claim 18, characterised in that said joining means (5) are hook-and-loop type pads and co-operating hook-and-loop type material is provided on said strap members (8, 9). A ventilator for use in producing assisted ventilation of the lungs of a patient comprising an enclosure as claimed in any one of the preceding claims together with an air oscillator.

Inventors: HAYEK ZAMIR, HAYEK, ZAMIR
Applicants: DRANEZ ANSTALT
Application year: 1990
Main classification: A61H31
IPC codes: A61H31