Patent ID: 6887222

Claim:
A drainable ostomy pouch having sidewalls of flexible sheet material which define a cavity therebetween and which define a downwardly extending neck portion terminating in a discharge opening that is closed by folding the neck portion upwardly and opened by unfolding the neck portion downwardly for draining the contents from the cavity; wherein the improvement comprises a transversely-extending bias member integrally associated with each of the sidewalls adjacent the discharge opening such that the bias members are separated by the sidewalls; the bias members normally being flat so as to be in straight parallel closed condition but being moveable so as to be bowed away from each other and to have smoothly arched curvatures under inwardly directed finger pressure applied to opposite ends of the bias members to hold the discharge opening in an open position; the bias members comprising stiff but flexible, springlike shape-recoverable strips permitting selective control of the rate of discharge of the contents from the cavity by applying varying finger pressure to opposite ends thereof; and wherein the strips are generally rectangular and are offset in directions extending transversely of the neck portion so that each strip has one end portion extending beyond the corresponding end portion of the other of the offset strips.