Patent ID: 8568441

Claim:
A method of inflating with gas an elongated, inflatable, two-layer bladder of a tourniquet cuff, wherein the cuff is secured around the limb of a patient with the layers thereof pressed together, comprising the steps of: sealing together side edges of top, middle, and bottom layers of material to form a gas-inflatable bladder between the bottom and middle layers; stiffening the cuff with an elongated stiffener member that is enclosed within an enclosure formed between the middle and top layers, the stiffener being movable within the enclosure and arranged to compress the portion of the bladder underlying the stiffener inwardly toward the limb; preventing the middle and bottom layers of the bladder from contacting each other at a location adjacent to a sealed edge of the bladder, thereby to provide a continuous pneumatic passageway adjacent to the sealed edge for distributing inflating gas along the length of the bladder; limiting the width of the stiffener member to be less than the distance between the sealed side edges of the cuff thereby to prevent the stiffener from overlying and thereby compressing the continuous pneumatic passageway; providing a port opening into the sealed bladder; separating the middle and bottom layers that form the bladder adjacent the port opening with a flange member that together with the bottom layer defines a channeled passageway extending away from the port opening for delivering gas through the channeled passageway, beyond the flange member and into the inflatable bladder; and receiving pressurized gas from the port opening and directing the pressurized gas through the channeled passageway and toward the continuous pneumatic passageway thereby to separate the pressed-together layers of the bladder by an amount sufficient to pneumatically connect the channeled passageway and the continuous pneumatic passageway and thereby distribute inflating gas along the length of the bladder for inflating the entire bladder to the pressure of the pressurized gas.