Intubation Tube Guide Asymmetry and Visual Targeting
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing intubation assistance apparatuses face challenges in ensuring accurate alignment and advancement of the intubation tube into the trachea, leading to reduced manipulability during the insertion process.
Innovation Solution
The apparatus includes a main body with an image taking means and a display that provides a target mark on the screen to adjust the advancing direction of the intubation tube, ensuring it is aligned with the observation site, and features a guide means with a central axis parallel to the intubation tube, enhancing visibility and alignment accuracy.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If the internal bore is formed substantially parallel with the guide groove, then the structure is simple and easy to manufacture, but the intubation tube advances in a direction dislocated from the trachea entrance, reducing manipulability
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies asymmetry by positioning the image guide and internal bore at an angle relative to the guide groove, specifically with the image guide's optical axis forming an angle with the longitudinal axis of the guide groove. This asymmetric arrangement ensures that the intubation tube, which follows the guide groove, advances along the correct trajectory toward the trachea entrance while the image guide observes from an angled position, resolving the directional dislocation problem
2Measurement precision
If the operator manually adjusts the intubation assistance instrument to align the intubation tube with the trachea entrance, then alignment accuracy is achieved, but the operation becomes complex and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-service by designing the system so that when the image of the trachea entrance is displayed at the center of the screen, the intubation tube automatically advances toward the trachea entrance without requiring additional manual adjustment. The geometric relationship between the guide groove, internal bore, and image guide is configured such that the operator only needs to center the image on the screen, and the system self-corrects the alignment, reducing operational complexity while maintaining high alignment accuracy
Data Source
AI summary
An intubation assistance apparatus includes a main body having a proximal end portion; an intubation assistance instrument having an elongated insertion section for insertion into a target site or its vicinity of a patient from a mouth cavity of the patient, the inserting section being formed with a tube guide for leading the intubation tube toward the observation site; and an imaging device for taking an image of an observation site at a distal end portion of the insertion section as an electronic image. The main body includes a display having a screen for displaying the electronic image taken by the imaging device, and the screen of the display is adapted to indicate a target mark for adjusting or setting an advancing direction of the intubation tube to the observation site displayed on the screen in the electronic image displayed on the screen.