Method of measuring and regulating the pressure in the sealing cuff of a tracheal tube and apparatus for implementing the method

US5361753A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Deutsche Aerospace AG · DE

Inventors

• Werner Pothmann · Hamburg, DE
• Bastian Steinberg · Hamburg, DE
• Peter Poock-Haffmans · Wedel, DE
• Dirk Harms · Gmunden, AT

Key dates

• Filing date: Jul 7, 1993
• Grant date: Nov 8, 1994
• Expiry date: Jul 7, 2013

Classification

• Technology area (CPC A): Human Necessities
• CPC primary: A61M16/021
• WIPO field: Medical technology
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A processor based method of measuring and regulating the pressure in the inflatable sealing cuff of a tracheal tube introduced into the trachea of a patient, for generating a constant contact pressure of the sealing cuff against the trachea for the purpose of producing gas-tight respiration for the patient and avoiding the aspiration of fluids from the patient's oral cavity into his breathing passages. The processor receives the actual value of the pressure existing in the sealing cuff as measured by a pressure sensor, detects large and steep increases in pressure in the sealing cuff that deviate from a nominal pressure in the sealing cuff, and interprets the pressure increases as predicting a subsequent widening of the trachea which will result in a decrease of the pressure in the sealing cuff. The processor provisionally increases the pressure in the sealing cuff by adding air for a limited and defined period of time and thereafter regulates the pressure in the sealing cuff gradually toward the original nominal pressure.