Optical therapy devices, systems, kits and methods for providing therapy to a body cavity

Abstract

An optical therapy device is disclosed. The optical therapy device provides therapeutic light therapy to a body cavity. The device includes a housing adapted to be hand held, a UV light source positioned in or on the housing, and an insertion member having a distal end configured to be inserted into the body cavity to illuminate tissue in the body cavity with light from the light source.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE [0001] This application is a continuation-in-part application of Ser. No. 11 / 152,946, filed Jun. 14, 2005, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety and to which application priority is claimed under 35 USC § 120. [0002] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 646,818, filed Jan. 25, 2005 and U.S. Provisional Application 60 / 661,688 filed Mar. 14, 2005, which are incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Infection of a patient takes many forms. Typically, acute bacterial infections are rather easily controlled using standard antibiotic therapies. Chronic infections, on the other hand, are often very difficult to control for several reasons: (1) the antimicrobial flora of chronically infected regions of the body often develop resistance to standard antibiotics due to multiple attempts to treat the flora with antimicrobial therapy; (2) the microbes often form biofilms to protect...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009] The invention relates to an optical therapy device for providing therapeutic light to a body cavity. An embodiment of the invention includes: a housing adapted to be hand-held; one or more light sources positioned in or on said housing adapted to deliver up to 50 mW of UV light; and an insertion member having a distal end configured to be inserted into the body cavity to illuminate tissue in the body cavity with light from the light source when the distal end of the insertion member is positioned in the body cavity.

Problems solved by technology

Chronic infections, on the other hand, are often very difficult to control for several reasons: (1) the antimicrobial flora of chronically infected regions of the body often develop resistance to standard antibiotics due to multiple attempts to treat the flora with antimicrobial therapy; (2) the microbes often form biofilms to protect themselves against the protective mechanisms of the patient; and (3) many chronic infections occur around man-made implants which often serve as a nidus for microbes to proliferate as well as form biofilms.

The United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that each year, nearly 2 million people in the United States acquire an infection while in a hospital, resulting in 90,000 deaths.

Images