Energy-saving anti-free flow portable pump for use with standard PVC IV tubing

Abstract

The present invention comprises an apparatus for pumping fluid through tubing. The apparatus includes a tubing base having a tubing support surface and a stop platen. The stop platen and the tubing support surface each comprise respective ridges aligned with a direction of fluid flow through the apparatus. The respective ridges are operatively arranged to engage a wall of tubing along a longitudinal axis of the tubing. In some aspects, the respective ridges are arcuate in a plane orthogonal to the direction of flow. In some aspects, the respective ridges are centered with respect to a transverse axis of the tubing and have a respective width less than an outside diameter of the tubing.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This is a continuation-in-part patent application under 35 USC 120, which claims the benefit of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10 / 117,515, filed Apr. 5, 2002, entitled, “ENERGY-SAVING ANTI-FREE FLOW PORTABLE PUMP FOR USE WITH STANDARD PVC IV TUBING” and incorporated by reference herein.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] This invention relates to a pump for providing fluid for injection into a patient. More specifically it relates to a method and apparatus for an ambulatory infusion pump for pumping liquid through standard intravenous (IV) tubing. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Infusion pumps for delivering fluid to a patient are well known in the art. Two general categories of infusion pumps known in the art are ambulatory pumps and large volume parenteral (LVP) pumps. These pumps deliver fluid to a patient through tubing at higher accuracies than gravity drip tubing delivery systems. [0004] LVP pumps are relatively large infusion pump...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0012] Another object of the present invention is to provide an ambulatory pump with high accuracy, preferably better than ±5% accuracy.

[0013] It is a further object to provide an ambulatory pump that can deliver fluid to a patient at a relatively high volume flow rate, for example 125 ml / hour, for at least 24 hours.

[0014] It is yet another object to provide an ambulatory pump that prevents the free flow of fluid into the patient when the tubing is installed and removed.

Problems solved by technology

This leads to very high power consumption when using standard tubing.

Thus, a battery capable of powering the pump for 24 hours is very heavy and bulky.

In addition, fully collapsing the tubing deforms the tubing.

Less fluid is discharged from the tubing as the cross section becomes more elliptical, leading to negative flow rate errors.

However, there are several drawbacks in comparison to the LVP pump.

The reduced battery cannot provide the power required to completely collapse standard PVC tubing.

This specialized equipment increases the cost of using the pumps.

Even with special dedicated IV sets or silicon tubing and cassettes, many ambulatory pumps can only provide fluid to a patient for a few hours on a single battery charge.

Another problem with the infusion pumps currently in the art is the danger of free flow of fluid when the tubing is inserted or removed from the pump.

However, there is no means currently in the art to ensure that the tubing is occluded before the tubing is installed into or removed from the pump.

Thus, the tubing may accidentally become unoccluded while the tubing is outside the pump, allowing fluid to flow freely to the patient.

This overdose of fluid may be harmful or even lethal.

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