Patient enteral hydration with cooled fluids

Abstract

A device and method for enterally hydrating a patient with cooled fluids. The patient may be a paralyzed or limited upper body mobility patient with a functional gastrointestinal system who is nonetheless incapable or not fully capable of drinking unassisted. Here fluids are provided by a suspended container which also has a pouch to admit cooling material such as ice, but to keep the cooling material separate from the fluid. The container may also have optional graduation markings to allow for convenient estimation of fluid use, and an upper open and closeable cap to allow the container to be refilled. The container has a lower fluid conducting tube that terminates in a mouthpiece. The mouthpiece contains a fluid valve formed from at least one slit in an elastic material. Patient mouth force on the valve causes the slit to enlarge, thus enabling cooled fluid to flow into the patient.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a continuation in part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13 / 347,274 entitled “DEVICE AND METHOD FOR PATIENT ENTERAL HYDRATION”, filed Jan. 10, 2012, inventors Jeffrey Lee Wheeler and Kari Nicole Whitaker Wheeler; application Ser. No. 13 / 347,274 in turn claimed the priority benefit of U.S. provisional patent application 61 / 431,309 entitled “HYDRATION APPARATUS”, filed Jan. 10, 2011, inventor Jeffrey Lee Wheeler; the contents both applications are incorporated herein by reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]1. Field of the Invention[0003]This invention is in the field of therapeutic devices for enterally (e.g. by mouth) hydrating patients with cooled fluids.[0004]2. Description of the Related Art[0005]Ensuring that a patient is adequately hydrated is one of the most fundamental levels of medical care. Absent adequate hydration, blood pressure can fall dangerously low, blood may fail to adequately circulate, and or...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent text discusses the idea of giving patients enteral fluids that have been cooled before being drunk. The cooling material can be stored in a separate pouch inside the fluid container, which can be pressed up against the fluid to cool it before the patient drinks it. The device is designed to be used in medical aseptic techniques to reduce exposure to external microorganisms. The fluid may be pre-filled and sterilized or treated to reduce the microbial load before being given to the patient. The technical effect of this invention is to provide a more efficient and safe way to cool enteral fluids for patients with certain medical needs.

Problems solved by technology

Absent adequate hydration, blood pressure can fall dangerously low, blood may fail to adequately circulate, and organs may begin shutting down.

At present, the first line of hydration often begins with placing an IV line for direct parenteral administration of fluid directly into the patient's veins, it is often not ideal to keep this up for long.

IV administration requires sterile fluids and IV lines, can expose the patient to some risk of infection, and other complications.

Some patients, however, remain unable to drink fluids without assistance, often for some period of time.

One category may suffer from severe sickness that hampers the enteral fluid administration route, and / or be so incapacitated as to be unable to swallow (i.e. many intensive care patients).

However this assisted enteral fluid administration route is quite time consuming, and whenever possible, the preferred option is to step the assisted enteral administration patient down to self enteral administration as soon as feasible.

Despite these and other prior art proposals, none of these devices has apparently been successful enough to catch the attention of the medical community.

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