External Supraglottic Suction Endotracheal Tube for Vocal Cord Protection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current endotracheal tube designs with intramural suction channels cause damage to vocal cords and swallowing functions due to suctioning at the subglottic space, leading to complications like laryngospasm, bronchospasm, and pneumonia, with limited suction capacity and increased risk of obstruction.
Innovation Solution
An endotracheal tube assembly with a banana-shaped, supraglottic suction channel located above the vocal cords, adhered externally to the tube, providing a larger diameter and capacity for suctioning, and using a supraglottic balloon to isolate the subglottic space, reducing damage and improving suction efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If suctioning is performed at the subglottic space through intramural channels, then secretions are removed from the respiratory tree, but vocal cord injuries and damage to swallowing functions occur
Solution Approach 1:
The suction channel is extracted from the intramural position within the tube wall and relocated to an external supraglottic position. This extraction removes the harmful interaction with vocal cords while maintaining secretion removal function through the external channel that accesses the supraglottic space above the vocal cords.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of suctioning from below the vocal cords (subglottic) as in conventional designs, the invention inverts the approach by suctioning from above the vocal cords (supraglottic). This inversion changes the suction entry point from the subglottic space through the tube wall to the supraglottic space via an external channel, thereby avoiding vocal cord damage.
2Ease of operation
If intramural suction channels are used, then suctioning can be performed, but the channel diameter is limited and obstruction risk increases
Solution Approach 1:
The suction channel is taken out from the constrained intramural position and placed externally in the supraglottic region. This extraction allows the channel to have a larger diameter without compromising tube wall integrity, thereby reducing obstruction risk while maintaining ease of operation.
3Productivity
If suction pressure is increased to improve secretion removal, then more secretions are suctioned, but damage to vocal cords and surrounding structures increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention inverts the suction location from subglottic to supraglottic, allowing effective secretion removal at lower pressures. By accessing secretions in the supraglottic space where they accumulate before entering the respiratory tree, the system achieves high productivity without the high negative pressures that cause structural damage.
4Adaptability or versatility
If the endotracheal tube wall is made thinner to accommodate intramural suction channels, then the tube is more flexible, but tube strength is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The suction channel is extracted from the tube wall, eliminating the need to thin the wall to accommodate it. This allows the tube wall to maintain its full thickness and strength while the external suction channel provides the necessary suctioning capability.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3A~3B
AI summary
The assembly comprises: an endotracheal tube (10), with an external wall (11); and a suction channel (12), with a first more distal portion (13), equipped with a suction end (14), and externally attached to the external wall (11). The suction end (14) is guaranteed to occupy the supraepiglottic area of a patient (1), above the vocal cords (3), larynx (4), and epiglottis (5). The suction channel (12) has a banana-shaped cross-section, with two opposite curved segments (15, 16). The suction channel (12) has orifices (21) in the vicinity of the suction end (14). The suction end (14) ends in a bevel (22). A supraglottic barrier (described in WO 2021/234183 (BRAVO) (17) may be housed in the endotracheal tube (10). The invention allows suctioning performance to be improved, as well as reducing damages to the patient.