Visualizing retrograde tracheal intubation device

Abstract

This invention discloses a visual retrograde endotracheal intubation device, belonging to the field of medical device technology, suitable for establishing airways in difficult airways. The device includes a cricothyroid membrane puncture assembly, a visual acquisition assembly, a guidewire assembly, and an image output assembly. The cricothyroid membrane puncture assembly includes a hollow puncture needle. The visual acquisition assembly is disposed inside the hollow puncture needle at a predetermined position behind the needle tip, with its imaging direction forming a predetermined angle with the axis of the puncture needle. The hollow puncture needle has an imaging window corresponding to the visual acquisition assembly on its needle wall for acquiring image information within the airway. The guidewire assembly enters the airway through the puncture assembly and moves retrogradely along the airway. The visual acquisition assembly captures at least a portion of the image of the guidewire within the airway, and the image output assembly outputs image information to the operator to assist in determining the direction and position of the guidewire. This invention reduces reliance on operator experience by providing real-time visual guidance during retrograde intubation, reduces the risk of the guidewire entering an off-target direction, shortens operation time, and improves the safety and success rate of retrograde endotracheal intubation in difficult airways.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention belongs to the fields of anesthesiology, emergency medicine and airway management, and specifically relates to a visual retrograde endotracheal intubation device. Background Technology

[0002] In the fields of anesthesia, emergency medicine, and critical care, airway management is a crucial technical aspect for ensuring patient ventilation and oxygenation. For patients with limited mouth opening, restricted neck movement, upper airway anatomical abnormalities, or airway swelling, conventional oral or nasal endotracheal intubation may be difficult to perform. Retrograde endotracheal intubation, as a rescue airway establishment method, is an effective "lifesaver" for managing complex airways (such as severe maxillofacial trauma, ankylosing spondylitis, and limited neck movement). However, in actual clinical practice, certain operational difficulties have become the main reason limiting its use.

[0003] Retrograde endotracheal intubation typically involves puncturing the cricothyroid membrane, inserting a guidewire into the airway, and completing the intubation along the guidewire. However, existing retrograde endotracheal intubation techniques still have several shortcomings in practical application. First, judging the puncture location and depth during cricothyroid membrane puncture relies heavily on the operator's experience. In situations with unclear anatomical landmarks or emergencies, it is difficult to reliably confirm whether the puncture has successfully entered the airway. Second, during the guidewire's insertion and retrograde movement into the airway, there is a lack of visual means to confirm its direction and position within the airway. Operators usually rely on touch or indirect experience, which can easily lead to the guidewire deviating from the expected path, curling, or entering a non-target channel. After entering the airway, the ideal path for the guidewire is to move towards the head (upward) and pass through the glottis. However, in practice, the guidewire is easily affected by gravity or anatomical angles, slipping towards the feet (downward / lungs). Because of the lack of a field of vision, doctors cannot immediately determine the actual location of the guidewire. Often, a considerable distance is advanced before the guidewire emerges from the mouth, indicating the incorrect direction and requiring extraction and re-entry – a potentially fatal delay in time-sensitive emergency care. Furthermore, even if the guidewire reaches the oropharynx, its exposure location and timing remain uncertain, increasing the difficulty of guidewire capture and subsequent intubation. During these procedures, retrograde intubation is often time-consuming, and patient ventilation may not yet be established, posing a risk of hypoxemia. Current retrograde intubation devices are mostly of a decentralized design, lacking coordinated guidance for key operational steps, resulting in a high dependence on operator experience and limiting its clinical application.

[0004] Therefore, how to provide an effective means of confirming the guidance path during retrograde endotracheal intubation, ensuring that the guidewire can move in the correct direction, and providing an effective continuous mechanical path for the endotracheal tube to reduce operational uncertainty has become a technical problem that urgently needs to be solved in this field. Summary of the Invention

[0005] The purpose of this invention is to provide a visual retrograde endotracheal intubation device to solve the problem of difficulty in confirming the guide path during retrograde endotracheal intubation in difficult airways, ensure that the guide wire moves along the correct path, avoid the risks caused by blind cricothyroid membrane puncture, reduce operational uncertainty, and shorten the time required for retrograde intubation in difficult airways.

[0006] To achieve the above objectives, the present invention provides a visual retrograde endotracheal intubation device, comprising: a cricothyroid membrane puncture assembly for puncturing the patient's cricothyroid membrane to enter the airway;

[0007] A visual acquisition component is disposed on the cricothyroid membrane puncture component and is used to acquire image information of the airway at the airway entrance formed by puncture;

[0008] A guidewire assembly is used to enter the airway through the cricothyroid membrane puncture assembly and move retrogradely along the airway.

[0009] An image output component, connected to the vision acquisition component, is used to output the image information so that the operator can determine the position of the guidewire in the airway based on the image information; wherein, the vision acquisition component captures at least a portion of the image of the guidewire in the airway.

[0010] The cricothyroid membrane puncture assembly includes a hollow puncture needle. The visual acquisition assembly is disposed inside the hollow puncture needle. A marking line is provided on the needle shaft of the hollow puncture needle near the needle plug. The marking line is a straight line along the axis of the hollow puncture needle and located on the outer surface of the needle shaft. The position of the marking line on the outer surface of the needle shaft corresponds to the position of the needle tip bevel near the needle plug end.

[0011] The visual acquisition component is positioned within a predetermined distance behind the tip of the hollow puncture needle, and the optical axis of the visual acquisition component is perpendicular to the axis of the hollow puncture needle.

[0012] The predetermined distance is 1-3mm.

[0013] The hollow puncture needle has an imaging window on its needle wall that corresponds to the visual acquisition component. The imaging window is enclosed by a transparent biocompatible material and has an arc-shaped structure.

[0014] It also includes an illumination component, which is disposed on the cricothyroid membrane puncture component and is used to provide airway illumination for the visual acquisition component;

[0015] The light emission direction of the lighting component is the same as the field of view direction of the visual acquisition component.

[0016] The guide wire assembly includes a guide wire and an identification structure. The guide wire includes a head and a tail. The identification structure is disposed at the head and tail of the guide wire to enhance visual recognition.

[0017] The marking structure includes striped structures, colored markings, reflective structures, or combinations thereof.

[0018] It also includes an intubation assembly that is advanced along the guidewire into the airway.

[0019] The image output component includes a display screen or an image output interface.

[0020] Compared with the prior art, the beneficial effects of the present invention are:

[0021] This invention incorporates a visual acquisition component at the tip of the puncture needle. This component captures images of the guidewire, preventing the guidewire from being pulled out of the airway and thus failing to effectively guide the endotracheal tube. The visual acquisition component provides a field of view for guidewire insertion, avoiding complete reliance on the physician's experience and effectively improving the success rate of guidewire insertion into the airway while shortening the procedure time.

[0022] Meanwhile, the visual acquisition component can capture the movement of the guidewire as it enters the patient's airway through the puncture component, ensuring that the guidewire moves in the correct direction toward the patient's mouth and nose, preventing the guidewire head from being affected by other factors and moving toward the patient's feet, thus avoiding repeated pull-out and insertion of the guidewire and reducing harm to the patient.

[0023] By setting a marking line on the needle shaft, operators can better determine the orientation of the needle tip bevel when performing cricothyroid membrane puncture. Since the position of the marking line on the outer surface of the needle shaft corresponds to the position of the needle tip bevel near the end of the needle plug, the orientation of the needle tip bevel can be determined by observing the position of the marking line on the needle shaft. That is, when the marking line is upward, the needle tip bevel is also upward, and when the marking line is downward, the needle tip bevel is also downward.

[0024] In addition, the guidewire is equipped with marking structures to enhance visual recognition. Because the guidewire has a small diameter and the space inside the patient's airway is limited, to avoid missing the opportunity for the guidewire tail to fully exit the puncture assembly and enter the patient's airway, marking structures such as stripes, colored markers, or reflective structures are added to the guidewire. This allows operators to more intuitively observe the guidewire tail, enabling timely advancement of the guidewire and guidance of the endotracheal tube insertion. Simultaneously, the marking structures on the guidewire clearly distinguish this part from other parts of the guidewire. Furthermore, since the visual acquisition component's field of view within the patient's airway is relatively fixed, the images captured by the visual acquisition component can be further used to provide warnings or alerts based on machine vision, helping operators complete the procedure more accurately and efficiently.

[0025] Finally, the visual acquisition component is positioned within a predetermined distance from the needle tip. This ensures that the visual acquisition component avoids the needle tip itself and is not located inside the hollow puncture needle, but rather at the exit point of the hollow needle tube. This placement prevents the visual acquisition component from reducing the strength of the needle tip and avoids the limited field of view that would occur if the visual acquisition module were placed in the middle of the hollow puncture needle. Furthermore, this position also guides the guide wire. Because the visual acquisition component and imaging window are encapsulated in an arc-shaped structure, it better guides the guide wire towards the patient's mouth and nose when it exits the needle hole. Moreover, to prevent contamination or obstruction of the visual acquisition component by blood or other bodily fluids during the puncture process, anesthetic drugs can be injected into the hollow puncture needle to clean the component, preventing any impact on imaging. The placement of the visual acquisition component at the exit point also effectively prevents anesthetic residue from remaining on the component due to fluid tension, thus avoiding any impact on imaging. Attached Figure Description

[0026] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of the visual retrograde endotracheal intubation device of the present invention;

[0027] Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of the cricothyroid membrane puncture assembly of the present invention;

[0028] Figure 3 This is a cross-sectional view of the cricothyroid membrane puncture assembly of the present invention;

[0029] Figure 4 This is an enlarged structural diagram of point A in the present invention;

[0030] Figure 5 This is a front view of the hollow puncture needle in this invention;

[0031] Figure 6 This is a schematic diagram of the puncture needle of the present invention with an inclination angle of 45° and the beveled surface of the hollow puncture needle tip facing upward.

[0032] Reference numerals: 1. Cricothyroid membrane puncture assembly; 11. Hollow puncture needle; 2. Visual acquisition assembly; 3. Guide wire assembly; 31. Guide wire; 32. Marking structure; 4. Image output assembly; 5. Imaging window; 6. Illumination assembly; 7. Cannulation assembly; 8. Marking line. Detailed Implementation

[0033] In this invention, unless otherwise explicitly specified and limited, the terms "installation," "connection," "linking," and "fixing," etc., should be interpreted broadly. For example, they can refer to a fixed connection, a detachable connection, or an integral part; they can refer to a mechanical connection or an electrical connection; they can refer to a direct connection or an indirect connection through an intermediate medium; they can refer to the internal communication of two components or the interaction between two components. Those skilled in the art can understand the specific meaning of the above terms in this invention according to the specific circumstances.

[0034] The following description, in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments, provides further details:

[0035] Example 1

[0036] like Figure 1-6 As shown, the present invention provides a visual retrograde endotracheal intubation device, comprising: a cricothyroid membrane puncture assembly 1, used for puncturing the patient's cricothyroid membrane to enter the airway;

[0037] Visual acquisition component 2 is disposed on the cricothyroid membrane puncture component and is used to acquire image information inside the airway at the airway entrance formed by puncture;

[0038] Guide wire assembly 3 is used to enter the airway through the cricothyroid membrane puncture assembly and move retrogradely along the airway;

[0039] Image output component 4, connected to the vision acquisition component, is used to output the image information so that the operator can determine the position of the guidewire in the airway based on the image information; wherein, the vision acquisition component captures at least a portion of the image of the guidewire in the airway.

[0040] The cricothyroid membrane puncture assembly 1 includes a hollow puncture needle 11, and the visual acquisition assembly 2 is disposed inside the hollow puncture needle 11. The hollow puncture needle 11 uses a 12G-16G needle tip, and its inner diameter is between 1-3 mm. A marking line 8 is provided on the needle shaft near the needle plug position. The marking line 8 is a straight line along the axis of the hollow puncture needle and located on the outer surface of the needle shaft. The position of the marking line 8 on the outer surface of the needle shaft corresponds to the position of the needle tip bevel near the needle plug end.

[0041] The visual acquisition component 2 is positioned within a predetermined distance range behind the tip of the hollow puncture needle 11, the predetermined distance being 1-3 mm. The optical axis of the visual acquisition component 2 is perpendicular to the axis of the hollow puncture needle 11. The viewing angle of the visual acquisition component 2 is 20°-100°. The visual acquisition component includes a sub-millimeter-level camera, such as a Medigus medical camera, an Osram NanEyeM module, or a Neural Nano-Optics camera, all with a size not exceeding 1 mm, and as small as 0.5 mm.

[0042] The visual acquisition component 2 can simultaneously acquire images of the airway interior and the tip of the puncture needle.

[0043] The hollow puncture needle 11 has an imaging window 5 on its needle wall that corresponds to the visual acquisition component. The imaging window 5 is sealed by a transparent biocompatible material.

[0044] It also includes an illumination component 6, which is disposed on the cricothyroid membrane puncture component and is used to provide airway illumination for the visual acquisition component;

[0045] The light emission direction of the lighting component 6 is the same as the field of view direction of the visual acquisition component.

[0046] The guide wire assembly 3 includes a guide wire 31 and an identification structure 32. The guide wire 31 includes a head and a tail. The identification structure 32 is disposed at the head and tail of the guide wire to enhance the visual recognition effect. The diameter of the guide wire is 0.1-1.5 mm.

[0047] The marking structure 32 includes a striped structure, a colored mark, a reflective structure, or a combination thereof.

[0048] It also includes an intubation assembly 7, which is advanced along the guidewire into the airway.

[0049] The image output component 4 includes a display screen or an image output interface.

[0050] One procedure for performing retrograde intubation in difficult airways using the aforementioned visual retrograde endotracheal intubation device is as follows:

[0051] 1) The cricothyroid membrane is punctured through the cricothyroid membrane puncture assembly 1 and enters the airway. After the hollow puncture needle 11 is in place, the tilt angle of the hollow puncture needle 11 is adjusted to 45°, ensuring that the marking line 8 is facing upwards, so that the bevel of the needle tip of the hollow puncture needle 11 is facing upwards. Figure 6 As shown;

[0052] 2) Activate the visual acquisition component 2 installed on the cricothyroid membrane puncture component 1 to acquire intra-airway image information;

[0053] 3) The guide wire 31 is inserted into the airway through the cricothyroid membrane puncture assembly 1, but the tail of the guide wire 31 does not enter the airway and remains outside the patient's body;

[0054] 4) Determine the position of the guidewire 31 in the airway based on the image information, and determine the position of the guidewire head by identifying the marking structure 32 of the guidewire 31 through the visual acquisition component 2, so as to ensure that the guidewire head 31 moves toward the patient's mouth and nose.

[0055] 5) After the guide wire 31 extends out of the mouth or nose, fix the head and tail of the guide wire 31 separately from outside the patient's body. At the same time, fix the puncture assembly 1. Advance the intubation assembly 7 along the guide wire 31 to the cricothyroid membrane in the airway. At this time, the image of the intubation assembly 7 is acquired by the visual acquisition assembly 2. When the head of the intubation assembly 7 is advanced to the cricothyroid membrane, stop, withdraw the guide wire 31 and remove the puncture assembly 1 to complete the endotracheal tube insertion.

[0056] Example 2

[0057] like Figure 1-6 As shown, this embodiment uses the same visual retrograde endotracheal intubation device as in Embodiment 1, and its operation is as follows:

[0058] 1) The cricothyroid membrane is punctured through the cricothyroid membrane puncture assembly 1 and enters the airway. After the hollow puncture needle 11 is in place, the tilt angle of the hollow puncture needle 11 is adjusted to 45°, ensuring that the marking line 8 is facing upwards, so that the bevel of the needle tip of the hollow puncture needle 11 is facing upwards. Figure 6 As shown;

[0059] 2) Activate the visual acquisition component 2 installed on the cricothyroid membrane puncture component 1 to acquire intra-airway image information;

[0060] 3) Insert the guide wire 31 into the airway through the cricothyroid membrane puncture assembly 1. When the tail of the guide wire 31 is completely inside the airway, and the visual acquisition assembly 2 observes that the marking structure at the tail of the guide wire is inside the airway, stop pulling the guide wire 31 towards the mouth and nose, and instead push the guide wire 31 towards the patient's feet, so that the length of the tail of the guide wire 31 entering the airway is longer, so as to better guide the endotracheal tube into the airway.

[0061] 4) Remove the puncture assembly 1 and fix the head of the guide wire 31;

[0062] 5) The intubation assembly 7 is advanced into the airway along the guide wire, and the guide wire 31 is withdrawn to complete the endotracheal tube insertion.

[0063] By employing the visual retrograde endotracheal intubation device of the present invention, different methods can be used to insert the endotracheal tube for patients with different conditions, thereby providing favorable conditions for establishing endotracheal access in difficult airways.

[0064] The above are merely preferred embodiments of the present invention and are not intended to limit the present invention. For those skilled in the art, the present invention can have various modifications and variations. Any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements, etc., made within the spirit and principles of the present invention should be included within the scope of protection of the present invention.

Claims

1. A visual retrograde endotracheal intubation device, characterized in that, include: Cricothyroid membrane puncture assembly for puncturing a patient's cricothyroid membrane to access the airway; A visual acquisition component is disposed on the cricothyroid membrane puncture component and is used to acquire image information of the airway at the airway entrance formed by puncture; A guidewire assembly is used to enter the airway through the cricothyroid membrane puncture assembly and move retrogradely along the airway. An image output component, connected to the vision acquisition component, is used to output the image information so that the operator can determine the position of the guidewire in the airway based on the image information; wherein, the vision acquisition component captures at least a portion of the image of the guidewire in the airway; The cricothyroid membrane puncture assembly includes a hollow puncture needle, and the visual acquisition assembly is disposed inside the hollow puncture needle. A marking line is provided on the needle shaft of the hollow puncture needle near the needle plug. The marking line is a straight line along the axis of the hollow puncture needle and located on the outer surface of the needle shaft. The position of the marking line on the outer surface of the needle shaft corresponds to the position of the needle tip bevel near the needle plug end. It also includes an illumination component, which is disposed on the cricothyroid membrane puncture component and is used to provide airway illumination for the visual acquisition component; The light emission direction of the lighting component is the same as the field of view direction of the visual acquisition component. The guide wire assembly includes a guide wire and an identification structure. The guide wire includes a head and a tail. The identification structure is disposed at the head and tail of the guide wire to enhance the visual recognition effect. The visual acquisition component is positioned within a predetermined distance behind the tip of the hollow puncture needle, and the optical axis of the visual acquisition component is perpendicular to the axis of the hollow puncture needle.

2. The visual retrograde endotracheal intubation device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The predetermined distance is 1-3mm.

3. The visual retrograde endotracheal intubation device according to claim 2, characterized in that, The hollow puncture needle has an imaging window on its needle wall that corresponds to the visual acquisition component. The imaging window is enclosed by a transparent biocompatible material and has an arc-shaped structure.

4. The visual retrograde endotracheal intubation device according to claim 3, characterized in that, The marking structure includes striped structures, colored markings, reflective structures, or combinations thereof.

5. The visual retrograde endotracheal intubation device according to claim 1, characterized in that, It also includes an intubation assembly that is advanced along the guidewire into the airway.

6. The visual retrograde endotracheal intubation device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The image output component includes a display screen or an image output interface.

Images