FEMALE CONNECTOR PART FOR A PACER HOUSING

Abstract: The invention relates to a female connector part for cooperation with an elongate, male connector part (21), said female connector part being intended for use in a pacer housing, said female connector part comprising a longitudinal bore defining a longitudinal space for said male connector part (21), said space comprising resilient tongues (3, 4) forming a small angle inwardly, i.e. in the inward direction from the opening of the female connector part for receiving said male connector part, in relation to the perpendicular to the longitudinal extent of said bore, said tongues (3, 4) being movable between two positions, a first position in which the tips of the tongues (3, 4) can engage said male elongate connector part (21) and a second position in which the tips of the tongues (3, 4) will not engage the male elongate connector part (21). Said female connector part further comprises sleeve means (5) movable between two positions corresponding to said first and second position of said tongues (3, 4), a first position, in which said tongues (3, 4) are free to engage said male connector part (21), and a second position, in which said sleeve means (5) will be located in-between said tongues (3, 4) and said male connector part (21), said tongues (5) thus being carried by said sleeve means (21) and being out of engagement with said male connector part (21).

Description: FEMALE CONNECTOR PART FOR A PACER HOUSING Field of the invention. The present invention relates to a connector for connecting leads to a housing for an implantable pacer according to the preamble of claim 1. Background of the invention. A pacer system normally comprises a pulse generator located in a pacer housing, leads and electrodes at the distal end of the leads. The proximal end of the leads is connected to the pacer housing by means of a releasable connector. The connector comprises a female connector part in the pacer housing. The proximal end of the lead normally is designed as a standardized male connector part and the female connector part normally is standardized to such an extent that it will receive this standardized male connector part. The most common way of fixing or locking the male connector part in the female connector part is to use set screws, which are oriented in an orthogonal direction in relation to the male connector part and which are accessible from the outside of the pacer housing. The female connector part normally is located in a header molded on to the housing. Whilst these set screws generally have a good fixing effect, the screws are somewhat difficult to handle, the screws being small and easily lost, both during transport and storage and during implantation. For this reason, attempts have been made to develop fixing means, which more or less automatically lock the male connector part upon insertion thereof. One device in which the proximal end of the lead is locked automatically is disclosed in US A 5,252,090. This device includes two elastically resilient metal tongues in a female connector part. The tongues are situated in a common plane and have a common central line, with a respective free end, which are located oppositely to each other. The distance between the two free ends is smaller than the diameter of the male connector part. The tongues will be deflected into the direction of insertion when the male connector part is inserted into the female connector part and the tongues thus will engage and lock the sides of the male connector part. If the male connector part is pulled outwardly from the female connector part, the locking effect will increase. The reason is that the friction between the tongues and the male connector part will draw the tongues in closer contact with the male connector part. The two tongues are integrally connected to two wings extending through openings in a header molded onto the housing. The wings are angled in relation to the plane of the tongues. Pressure on the wings will move the tongues out of engagement with the male connector part, which then can be removed. In similarity with the design using set screws, the locking means in the above design have to be accessed laterally from the outside. For this reason, the locking means are located in the header in order to avoid openings for manipulation in the parts of the housing in which the electronic parts of the pacer are located. Any openings for the connections in the housing or can into the interior of the housing from the header thus can be permanently sealed. The object of the invention is to provide a connection of the kind described above, which can use standard male connector parts, which involves a positive locking effect and which does not need any lateral openings in the connector housing or the pacemaker housing. Lateral openings are relatively difficult to design and manufacture, particularly if the connection is placed in the pacemaker housing. At the same time, it should be possible to easily remove the male connector part without any need of manual operations. The object further is to provide a connector that is suitable for use in so called black holes. Black holes are connectors made directly in the pacer housing without any need for the commonly used molded-on connector parts in the form of headers. The black holes may or may not extend through the entire pacer housing. A black hole extending through the entire housing gives the possibility to access the release mechanism from the outside without any need of lateral openings, the mechanism in this case being accessible longitudinally from the end of the hole. Short description of the inventive concept This object is achieved in that a connector according to the preamble of the appended claim 1 is provided with the features set forth in the characterizing part of claim 1. Preferred embodiments are set forth in the dependent claims . Short description of the appended drawings. Fig 1 illustrates a first embodiment of a female connector part in accordance with the invention in a perspective, exploded view, Fig 2 shows a sleeve means according to the invention as used in the embodiment according to Fig 1, Fig 3 shows a longitudinal section of the component parts in Fig 1 in an assembled state, Fig 4 illustrates a second embodiment of a female connector part in accordance with the invention in a perspective, exploded view, Fig 5 shows a longitudinal section of the component parts in Fig 4 in an assembled state. Detailed description of preferred embodiments of the invention. A first embodiment of the invention is described in Fig 1. The female connector part comprises a housing 1 consisting of two halves 9,10 that are mirror images of each other. The two halves in the assembled state define a central bore 14 and a U-shaped groove 12 whose base is orthogonal to the central opening. The two halves also each comprise a pin 17 and a complementary guide hole 18 for guiding the two parts when they are assembled. The groove 12 is intended to hold a U-shaped spring 2. The base of the spring 2 is provided with an opening 13 corresponding to the central bore 14. The opening 13 is aligned with the central opening 14 when the halves 9,10 of the housing 1 and the spring 2 has been assembled. The female connector part 1 is intended to receive the contact pin 21 of a standard male connector part 20 of a standard lead for a pacer. For the purposes of this description, the part of the female connector through which the male connector part is to be inserted will be defined as the proximal end. The opposite end will be defined as the distal end. The central bore 14 houses a release part 16 comprising a proximal cylindrical sleeve 5. The central bore 8 of the sleeve 5 has a diameter that corresponds to the diameter of the contact pin 21. The sleeve 5, which extends through the opening 13 in the spring 2, is provided with a flange 6 engaging the proximal side of the base of the spring 2. The central bore 14 is provided with a corresponding recess 22 for the flange 6. The distal end of the release part 16 is provided with operating means in the shape of a longitudinal hex socket 19. By means of this socket, the sleeve 5 can be rotated with a suitable tool. The socket 19 is accessible from the outside of the pacer, and the female connector part thus is very suitable for a black hole open at both ends. The female connector part of course also can be molded into a header that is provided with two openings. The sleeve 5 further is provided with two lateral openings 7, 1 ' located opposite to each other. The longitudinal edges of the openings 7,7' are beveled. The free ends of the shanks of the U-shaped spring 2 are bent inwards to such an extent that they are oriented a small angle towards the distal end of the connector part 1. This angle refers to a plane that is orthogonal to the longitudinal direction of the bore 14. In this way, the free ends form locking tongues 3,4. The locking tongues 3,4 are free to be deflected, but the outside of the remaining parts of the shanks of the spring are blocked against outward movement by the walls of the housing 1. The tongues 3,4 are located the same distance from the proximal end of the sleeve 5 as the center of the openings 7,7' in the sleeve 5. The tongues 3,4 thus can engage a contact pin 21 inserted into the sleeve 5 when the openings 7, 7 'are aligned with the tongues 3,4. Normally the openings 7, 7 'are aligned with the tongues 3,4. Thus, when the contact pin 21 is inserted into the sleeve 5, the tongues, which protrude through the openings 3,4, will lock the contact pin 21 against removal in the same manner as in the above-identified US-A-5, 252, 090. No tool is thus needed for locking the male connector part in the female connector part. When the contact pin 21 and lead is to be disconnected from the female connector part, an Allen key is inserted into the hex socket 19 and the sleeve 5 is turned 90°. The tips of the tongues 3,4 then will slide up on the outside of the sleeve, thus being held out of engagement with the contact pin 21. The contact pin then easily can be removed from the sleeve and from the female connecting part. Figs 4 and 5 illustrate another embodiment of the invention. This embodiment is identical to the one described above except that the part of the sleeve containing the hex socket has been modified. The elements in Figs 4 and 5 that are identical to elements in Figs 1-3 thus have been given the same reference signs as those elements have. The embodiment according to Figs 4 and 5 thus comprises a housing 1 comprising two halves 9,10 and defining a central bore 14 and a U-shaped groove 12. The housing 1 further comprises a U-shaped spring 2 located in said groove 12. The spring 12 is provided with an opening 13 in the base of the U and the free ends of the shanks of the U are bent inwards. The central bore 14 houses a release means 16' comprising a sleeve 5 with lateral openings 7, 7 'and a flange 6. The operating means in this embodiment comprises a rod- shaped extension 16' of the sleeve 5. The rod 16' is permanently attached to the sleeve 5 and the rod extends out of the housing of the pacer. The contact pin 21 is locked in the female connection part by inserting the pin 21 into the sleeve 5. There are two possibilities when designing the release operation in this case. The first possibility is to rotate the rod, as in the first embodiment described above. In that case, the longitudinal edges of the openings 7,7' should be beveled as described above. The second possibility, which is illustrated in Figs 4 and 5, is to design the release means for longitudinal movement, particularly for a movement in which the rod is pulled out of the pacer housing. In this case, the proximal edges of the lateral openings 7,7' in the sleeve 5 should be beveled so that the tips of the tongues 3,4 can slide up onto the proximal part of the sleeve 5. When the rod is pulled out of the pacer, the contact pin consequently will be released. It should be noted that in this case the recess 22' should have a length that is sufficient to allow this longitudinal movement. Although the lateral openings in the sleeve have been illustrated as being roughly rectangular, other shapes are possible. The openings can for instance be circular or may extend to the end of the sleeve.

Claims: CLAIMS 1. Female connector part for cooperation with an elongate, male connector part (21) , said female connector part being intended for use in a pacer housing, said female connector part comprising a longitudinal bore defining a longitudinal space for said male connector part (21) , said space comprising resilient tongues (3,4) forming a small angle inwardly, i.e. in the inward direction from the opening of the female connector part for receiving said male connector part, in relation to the perpendicular to the longitudinal extent of said bore, said tongues (3,4) being movable between two positions, a first position in which the tips of the tongues (3,4) can engage said male elongate connector part (21) and a second position in which the tips of the tongues (3,4) will not engage the male elongate connector part (21) , characterized in that said female connector part further comprises sleeve means (5) movable between two positions corresponding to said first and second position of said tongues (3,4), a first position, in which said tongues (3,4) are free to engage said male connector part (21), and a second position, in which said sleeve means (5) will be located in-between said tongues (3,4) and said male connector part (21), said tongues (5) thus being carried by said sleeve means (21) and being out of engagement with said male connector part (21) . 2. Connector part according to claim 1, characterized in that said sleeve means (5) comprises at least one transverse beveled edge for each tongue (4,4) which is movable in the longitudinal direction of said longitudinal bore from a first position, which is distal to the opening for insertion in said female connector part and in which said tongues (3,4) will be in engagement with said male connector part, to a proximal position in which said tongues (3,4) are supported by said sleeve means (5) . 3. Connector part according to claim 1, characterized in that said sleeve means (5) is rotatable along the longitudinal axis and comprises at least one longitudinal beveled edge for each tongue (3,4) in such a way that said tongues (3,4) will engage said male connector part (21) in a first rotational position of said sleeve means (5) and said tongues (3,4) will be supported by said sleeve means (5) in a second rotational position of said sleeve means (5) . 4. Connector part according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that said sleeve means (5) is cylindrical and will surround said male connector part (21) , at least one part (7,7') of the wall of said cylindrical sleeve means (5) being cut away for each tongue (3,4), the edges of said parts (7,7') that have been cut away forming the respective beveled edges.

Inventors: FROEBERG PAUL, FROEBERG, PAUL
Applicants: FROEBERG PAUL, PACESETTER AB, FROEBERG, PAUL
Application year: 1998
Main classification: A61N1
IPC codes: A61N1, H01R4, H01R13