Abstract:
Disclosed are a medical product and a system for wirelessly identifying a location of the medical product. In an implementation, the medical product has a body like a conventional surgical drape and a module attached to the body. The module is wirelessly communicated with a detector which shows a location of the medical product.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This application claims the benefit of Chinese Patent Application No. 200710129414.4 filed Jul. 10, 2007 which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. 
       TECHNICAL FIELD 
       [0002]    This invention is directed to medical products and particularly to surgical products that can be wirelessly detected. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0003]    Surgical products like medical dressings, abdominal pads, drapes, gauzes and pledgets have been used for hemostasis and clearing blood or a body fluid in operation. However, the surgical products like surgical pads and gauzes dipped with blood or a body fluid frequently have been found being left in the patient&#39;s body during operation due to the negligence of the medical personnel. 
         [0004]    X-ray has generally been used to detect whether such a product is unintentionally left in the patient or where it stays. In this case, a substance detectable by X-ray is often added to the medical product so that it can be detected by X-ray. However, the X-ray detection only can be generally performed with a special facility after the operation. Moreover, X-ray is radioactive and harmful to the patient. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0005]    To address the above problem, there is provided a medical product used in a surgical operation comprising: a body; and a module attached to the body that can be wirelessly detected. 
         [0006]    The present invention also provides a system for identifying a location of a medical product comprising a body and a module attached to the body, comprising a detector that can wirelessly communicate with the module to locate the location of the medical product. 
         [0007]    When an operation is finished, the medical personnel may use the detector, before suturing a wound on the patient, to confirm whether a medical product is left in the patient&#39;s body so as to avoid malpractices. 
         [0008]    Other aspects, features and advantages will be apparent from the following detailed description, the drawings and the claims. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING 
         [0009]      FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram illustrating a medical product having a wirelessly detectable module according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0010]      FIG. 2  is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of an RFID module and a detector; 
           [0011]      FIG. 3  is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a non-contact IC module and a detector; and 
           [0012]      FIG. 4  is a schematic diagram illustrating a bar code and a detector with a reading device. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0013]    Hereinafter, a detailed description of the present invention will be given with reference to the appended drawings and embodiments. 
         [0014]    The term “a conventional medical product” or “conventional medical products” as referred to herein may be a medical product that is used in operation but can be unintentionally left in a patient&#39;s body due to the negligence of the medical personnel, for example, medical dressings, abdominal pads, drapes, gauzes and pledgets. 
         [0015]    Referring to  FIG. 1 , it shows a medical product  100  according to the present invention. A body  101  that can be one of the conventional medical products in the art, and a module  103  attached to the body  101  are provided. 
         [0016]    The body  101  herein referred to correspond to “a conventional medial product” as referred to hereinabove. The module  103  should be wirelessly detectable, of which examples may include an RFID module, a non-contact IC module or a bar code. The module  103  should be prepared to provide an isolation outer surface so that blood or other body fluids have no impact on the working of the module. 
         [0017]    In some embodiments, the medical product can further comprise a casing  102  enclosing the module  103 . The casing  102  can be made of a nontoxic isolation material such as rubber and plastic. 
         [0018]    The module  103  or the casing  102  can be attached to an outer surface of the body  101  or embodied within the body by a process known well in the art for example, by sewing, adhering, fusing or weaving. 
         [0019]    In an implementation, the medical product has a body made of a spunlaced non-woven fabric. In the preparation, a plurality of modules  103  or casings  102  each enclosing a module are regularly adhered to a large spunlaced non-woven fabric. Subsequently, the spunlaced non-woven fabric is cut, folded and then sewed to form a plurality of surgical pads each having one module  103  or one casing  102 . 
         [0020]    In one of embodiments, the module  103  is a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) module. As shown in  FIG. 2 , the RFID module  300  has an inductor  301 , an antenna  302  and an EEPROM  303  for storing identification codes and other data. To avoid a large volume, the RFID module  300  is passive. The required energy in use is generated by inductive coupling from the electromagnetic wave transmitted by a detector  310 . The capability of the EEPROM  303  may be in a range from several bits and tens of kilobits. The identification codes stored in the EEPROM  303  may be transmitted through the antenna  302  by using the energy obtained from an induced current. The RFID module  300  has the advantages of light weight, small volume, long life and low cost. 
         [0021]    The detector  310  is provided with a transmitting module  311 , a receiving module  312 , a processing module  313  and an alarming module  314 , as shown in  FIG. 2 . In this embodiment, the alarming module  314  may be selected from the group consisting of a lighting module, a vibrating module, a sounding module and a combination thereof, which can be used to give warning by lighting, vibrating and sounding, respectively. 
         [0022]    During operation, before a wound on the patient is to be sutured, the transmitting module  311  of the detector  310  moved near the patient is controlled to transmit an electromagnetic wave. If a medical product having at least one RFID module  300  is left in the patient&#39;s body, the inductor  301  in the RFID module  300  will, responding to the electromagnetic wave, generate an induced current by coupling. Then, the RFID module  300  transmits the identification codes stored in the EEPROM  303  in the form of an electromagnetic wave (i.e. a feedback signal) which can be received by the receiving module  312 . If the processing module  313  judges that the frequency of the electromagnetic wave and the identification codes are suitable, it controls the alarming module  314  to give warning. 
         [0023]    In another embodiment, the module  103  is a non-contact IC module comprising an LC series resonance circuit whose frequency is equal to the transmitting frequency of the transmitting module of the detector.  FIG. 3  shows an example of the non-contact IC module  400  and a detector. In this embodiment, the detector  410  can be configured as the same as the detector  310  in the above embodiment, which will not be described in detail hereinafter. As shown in  FIG. 3 , a resonant capacitor in the LC series resonance circuit  401  is connected to one terminal of a unilateral electronic pump  404  (e.g. a diode), the other terminal of which is connected with an energy storage capacitor. During detection, if a medical product having at least one non-contact IC module  400  is left in the patient&#39;s body, the LC resonance circuit  401  is excited by a set of electromagnetic waves with constant frequencies transmitted by the detector  410  to generate resonance. Subsequently, charges are generated in the resonant capacitor and transported to the energy storage capacitor through the electronic pump  404 . When the charges in the energy storage capacitor are accumulated up to a certain amount, for example, the accumulated charges reaching a voltage of 2V, the energy storage capacitor may act as a source for transmitting the data stored in the memory  403  via the antenna  402  so as to transmit a feedback signal to the detector  410 . The subsequent steps are similar to those of the above embodiment and therefore will not be described herein. 
         [0024]    In still another embodiment, the wireless identification module is a bar code having a set of bar symbols arranged by a certain coding rule for representing the information of characters, numbers or symbols.  FIG. 4  shows an example of the embodiment. According to this embodiment, the medical product is provided with a bar code  500  which can be detected by using a detector  510  and a reading device  520  for bar codes. The reading device  520  comprises a light source  521 , a receiving device  522 , a photoelectric converter  523 , a translating circuit  524 , a calculator  525  and a calculator interface  526  connected with a processing module  513  of the detector  510 . During an operation in hospital, the reading device  520  is used to scan the patient&#39;s body. If a medical product having at least one bar code  500  is left in the patient&#39;s body, the bar code is irradiated by a beam transmitted by the light source  521  and passing through an optical system (not shown). Then, a reflex from the bar code passes back through the receiving device  522  and is imaged on the photoelectric converter  523  to generate an electric signal. The electric signal is amplified to generate an analog signal which is proportional to the reflex. Subsequently, the analog signal is filtered and shaped to form a corresponding square-wave signal. Then, the square-wave signal is translated to a calculator-acceptable digital signal by the translating circuit  524 . The calculator  525  then transmits a control signal to the processing module  513  of the detector  510  through the calculator interface  526 . The subsequent steps are similar to those of the above embodiments and therefore will not be described herein. 
         [0025]    The present invention is not limited to the description or embodiments mentioned above. Other implementations are within the scope of the following claims.