Transparent Fenestration Covering for Sterile Drape Access
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Solution Overview
Problem
Clinicians face challenges in viewing and palpating patients, as well as manipulating medical devices under procedural drapes due to limited fenestrations, which obstruct their visibility and access.
Innovation Solution
The development of fenestration coverings and procedural drapes featuring transparent sheets with non-adhesive central portions and adhesive margins, made of breathable polymeric materials like polyethylene, polypropylene, or polyurethane, allowing manipulation and connection of sterile and non-sterile equipment through breachable fenestrations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If small fenestrations are used in sterile drapes, then sterility is maintained, but visibility and access to patients are obstructed
Solution Approach 1:
The drape is divided into distinct functional zones: a sterile barrier layer with small fenestrations for maintaining sterility, and a transparent sheet layer with larger fenestrations for visibility and access. This segmentation allows each layer to optimize its specific function without compromising the other.
Solution Approach 2:
The transparent sheet acts as an intermediary layer between the sterile barrier and the patient's body. It provides a interface that allows clinicians to view and access patients while the sterile barrier maintains the sterile field, resolving the contradiction between sterility and accessibility.
2Ease of operation
If transparent sheets are added to procedural drapes, then visibility is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The transparent sheet is merged with the sterile drape to form a single integrated unit. The adhesive margins allow the transparent sheet to be attached to the drape, creating a combined structure that provides both sterility and visibility functions simultaneously, reducing overall system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The transparent sheet serves multiple functions: it provides visibility, allows manipulation of patients and devices, and can be configured with adhesive margins for secure attachment. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate components, simplifying the overall system.
3Reliability
If adhesive margins are included in fenestration coverings, then secure attachment is achieved, but ease of manipulation is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The adhesive properties are localized only to the margins of the transparent sheet, while the central portion remains non-adhesive. This local differentiation allows secure attachment at the edges while maintaining ease of manipulation in the central area where patients and devices are accessed.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed are fenestration coverings, procedural drapes, and methods thereof. For example, a fenestration covering is configured to cover a fenestration in a procedural drape for a medical procedure. The fenestration covering includes a transparent sheet of polymeric material and a non-adhesive central portion of the fenestration covering. The transparent sheet has a length and width sufficient to cover the fenestration and allow a clinician to manipulate the patient, one or more pieces of procedural equipment or supplies, or a combination thereof under the fenestration covering. The central portion of the fenestration covering is greater than or coextensive with the fenestration. An example method includes forming a fenestration in one or more procedural drapes for a medical procedure and covering the fenestration with the fenestration covering.