Saline Slush Bottle Rotation for Sterile Uniform Ice Crystals
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for producing sterile saline slush in surgical applications often result in jagged ice crystals and are either resource-intensive or fail to maintain a sterile barrier, posing risks of contamination during surgery.
Innovation Solution
A sturdy, sterile container with internal fins for mechanical agitation, allowing for the production of saline slush within a closed system that resists punctures and leaks, promoting uniform consistency and preventing large crystal growth, while maintaining a sterile environment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a drape is used to line the basin for sterile barrier, then sterility is maintained, but the drape may breach and compromise the sterile field
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a disposable sterile drape that is discarded after a single use, eliminating the risk of contamination from repeated sterilization cycles and ensuring the sterile field integrity throughout the procedure. This resolves the contradiction by providing reliable sterility without the cumulative risk of drape breaches from multiple sterilization/use cycles.
2Manufacturing precision
If mechanical agitation is applied to prevent large crystal growth, then smooth slush is produced, but aggressive mixing may compromise the drape integrity
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a sterile barrier drape as an intermediary layer between the mechanical agitation system and the saline solution. This allows mechanical mixing to occur effectively for producing smooth slush while the drape maintains the sterile field and prevents contamination, resolving the contradiction between achieving uniform slush and maintaining drape integrity.
3Productivity
If freezing is performed in an open basin, then cooling efficiency is improved, but contamination risk increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses a flexible sterile drape to line the freezing basin, creating a closed system that maintains sterility while allowing thermal conduction for efficient cooling. The drape acts as a thin film barrier that enables heat transfer from the basin walls to the saline solution without compromising the sterile field, thus resolving the contradiction between cooling efficiency and contamination risk.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution ensures the production of smooth, spherical saline slush with reduced risk of contamination, maintaining optimal thermodynamic cooling performance and integrity of the sterile field during surgical procedures.
Implementation Method 1
As ice grows from water that contains 'impurities' the water produces a crystal matrix
Implementation Method 2
If during the freezing process the fluid mixture is mechanically agitated, small crystal formations are generated at the nucleation sites but size growth of the crystal matrix is inhibited because mechanical agitation prevents larger crystal growth
Implementation Method 3
The top of the basin is open to ambient air and the fluid is cooled via the metal walls and bottom that supports the drape
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and apparatus for producing saline slush for surgical applications. Producing surgical saline slush in a slush bottle that is a rigid or semi-rigid, high integrity, sturdy container that resists punctures and leaks to better maintain a sterile barrier and does not rely on having an external object placed in the fluid to mix the slush. Slush is agitated by rotating the slush bottle within a slush bottle carriage around an axis of rotation. Agitation of the slush may be increased by including an agitation feature such as at least one fin in one or more sidewalls of the slush bottle. The rotating slush bottle is chilled. One variation is to keep the sterile saline in a flexible container and tumble the flexible container in a rotating slush bottle. Other variations are suggested.