Surgical Tray

Abstract

A surgical tray for operations on a patient's limb or extremity generally comprises a surgical site board adapted to support a portion of the patient's body. The site board includes a plurality of apertures. A retention device or retraction device is removably securable in at least one of the apertures and configured to retain a portion of the extremity being operated upon or retract tissue from the intended surgical site.

Description

[0001] The present application claims the filing benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60 / 688,036, filed Jun. 7, 2005, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates generally to medical equipment, and more particularly, to a surgical tray for operations on a patient's limb or extremity. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Many emergency room and other surgical operations require a doctor to operate on a patient's limb or extremity. Hands are some of the most commonly operated upon extremities because they are required to complete many tasks and activities and are thus highly at risk to injury. For example, approximately 10 percent or more of typical emergency room operations involve some form of acute hand surgery. Operating on a hand requires a great deal of care because tendons, nerves, and blood vessels must all be meticulously rejoined to assure proper alignment of any lace...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0013] The present invention provides a surgical tray that facilitates surgical operations on a patient's limb or extremity. In particular, the surgical tray is configured to retain a patient's limb and retract tissue or the like to reduce the surgeon's reliance upon medical assistants to complete a surgical operation. The surgical tray is also configured to provide an organized, sterile field for an operation by incorporating integral irrigation / waste fluids management, instrument management, and sharps management.

[0016] In another aspect of the invention, the surgical tray further includes a housing configured to support the surgical site board. The housing defines a basin positioned below the site board for collecting any fluids that may drain through the plurality of apertures during a surgical operation. For example, irrigation fluid applied to the surgical site, or bodily fluids, may drain through the apertures into the basin. Gutters and run-off guides may be provided around the site board to direct drainage fluids into the basin as well. The basin may be drained manually after an operation, using an integrated pour spout or aperture, or continuously during the operation by attaching a vacuum hose or drain to a port communicating with the basin. Thus, in addition to helping prevent the spillage of blood, disinfectants, and washes, the integrated fluid management system of the surgical tray may retain waste liquids and other fluids for convenient disposal.

[0017] The housing may also include one or more storage compartments positioned proximate to the site board. The storage compartments may contain all of the medications and instruments commonly needed for surgery on a patient's extremity, including sutures, disinfectants, dressing materials, anesthetics, and the retention and retraction devices discussed above. Thus, the surgical tray reduces the need for a surgeon to walk back and forth between various areas in an operating room to gather the necessary materials for a surgical procedure. If desired, the storage compartments may be sterilized and sealed when the surgical tray is produced so that the surgeon need only open the compartments to make sterile surgical instruments readily available for use.

[0019] By virtue of the foregoing, there is thus provided a surgical tray that reduces the time and frustration occasionally experienced by surgeons when preparing for and performing a surgical operation on a patient's limb or extremity. The retention and retraction devices cooperate with the apertures in the site board to secure the extremity and provide the surgeon with visual access to the intended surgical site without relying upon additional personnel. Integrated fluid management improves overall cleanliness during operations and facilitates disposal of contaminated waste liquids, while integrated sharps and instrument management helps increase overall efficiency and prevents misplacement of items. In addition, safety is promoted by providing containment of biohazardous liquids and protection from exposure to needles, scalpels, and other sharps.

Problems solved by technology

Hands are some of the most commonly operated upon extremities because they are required to complete many tasks and activities and are thus highly at risk to injury.

Additionally, microsurgical techniques are generally required because the tissues that make the functions of the hand possible are small by nature.

Current techniques for performing hand surgery in the emergency room and elsewhere are inefficient and frustrating.

Maintaining the hand in a desired position can be a difficult task when qualified assistants are not readily available, which is often the case during late-night, weekend, or very busy emergency room situations.

Additionally, gathering the necessary supplies from various areas in the emergency room prior to operation can be a burdensome task.

Due to a lack of centralized storage, the surgeon may find himself or herself walking back and forth between the patient and various areas of the room to gather surgical tools, sutures, needles, gauze, and other items required to complete the surgery.

The surgeon may experience additional frustration if supply amounts have not been maintained or if items have changed locations.

As a result of the manner by which items are gathered for surgery, the surgical operation itself becomes more difficult.

The clutter typically increases throughout the operation as surgeon uses different tools and instruments and places them back on the table.

Any increased operating time resulting from the lack of instrument management increases the overall cost of the surgery and can compromise the quality of the operation.

Additionally, the lack of instrument management increases the potential of accidental injury from exposed scalpel blades and the like.

Use of the tools themselves can also be a challenging task.

In particular, areas of tissue on the hand typically obstruct access to the surgical site being operated upon.

Because assistants are not always available to hold the stays during an operation, many surgeons place some sort of retractor frame around the surgical site.

The ability to use a stay to retract tissue in a desired three-dimensional direction is limited by the spacing of the notches and their position relative to the tissue.

Such a technique, however, may not sufficiently capture the fluids due to splashing while the fluids are being applied.

Moreover, the bin or basin may not be large enough to cover the entire area where drainage is likely to occur and can create a mess when attempting to dispose of its contents.

As a result, the surgeon has a more difficult time maintaining a sterile surgical site and reducing his or her own exposure to potentially contaminated and biohazardous fluids.

Although several attempts have been made to facilitate surgical operations on a patient's extremities, these attempts merely focus on one or few of the challenges associated with the operations and do not adequately ease the burden on surgeons.

Despite the improvements in stability, however, such devices do not adequately address the challenges associated with tissue retraction, instrument management, and fluid management.

In particular, although most of the tables provide some means for securing a hand or the like during surgery, the tables still limit the manner by which surgical stays may be used to retract tissue.

This row of notches, or “Scott fencing,” suffers from the same drawbacks as the notched framing discussed above—the desired direction of retraction is limited by the spacing of the notches and their position in 3 dimensions relative to the tissue.

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