Medical valve and method to monitor intra-abdominal pressure
View Patent ↗An apparatus for monitoring the intra-abdominal pressure of a hospitalized patient includes a urinary catheter connected to a urine valve providing selectable communication between a discharge end of the urinary catheter and either a drain or a fluid source. Preferably, the urine valve is adapted for remote actuation and has a housing adapted to resist patient discomfort from leg-valve contact. Plumbing structure desirably maintains fluid supply and drain conduits in a substantially parallel arrangement to assist routing those conduits between a patient's legs. When the urine valve is oriented to permit communication with the fluid source, an infusion pump may be used to infuse a known quantity of fluid through the urine valve and into the patient's bladder. A pressure transducer desirably is connected in-circuit to indicate the fluid's pressure. To facilitate the infusion process, an automatic flow control device may be included in a fluid supply path and arranged to permit repetitive operation of a syringe to inject a bolus of fluid into the patient's bladder. Subsequent to a period of time in which to make a pressure measurement, preferred embodiments of the urine valve automatically return to a bladder draining position.
1. A normally open, hydraulically actuated valve, comprising:
a control port, an entrance port, and a drain port, said valve being operable to resist draining fluid flow along a normally open first flow path between said entrance port and said drain port;
an expansion chamber disposed in fluid communication between said entrance port and said drain port, said expansion chamber carrying valve-closing seal structure on a fixed wall; and
a membrane arranged to receive fluid communication from said control port effective to cause a traveling wall to collapse a cross-section of said first flow path and create, in cooperation with said valve-closing seal structure, a blockage of said first flow path, said membrane being biased toward a valve-open position,
wherein the expansion chamber comprises one or more timing chambers arranged in association with the membrane to accommodate inflation of the membrane, by timing fluid, beyond a first valve-closed position.
2. The normally open, hydraulically actuated valve of claim 1 , further comprising:
a bleed-down port configured and arranged to permit discharge of timing fluid confined by said membrane effective to cause a time-delay prior to removal of said blockage.
3. The hydraulically actuated valve of claim 1 , wherein:
a sealing perimeter defined as a wetted boundary formed by contact of said membrane onto seal structure associated with said expansion chamber, when said membrane is displaced to a valve first-closed configuration, is noncircular.
4. The hydraulically actuated valve of claim 3 , wherein said sealing perimeter is a three-dimensional entity.
5. The hydraulically actuated valve of claim 1 , wherein:
said membrane is self-biased from a valve-closed position toward a valve-open position.
6. A hydraulically actuated valve comprising:
a housing configured and arranged to permit fluid communication between an entrance port, a control port, and a drain port;
a seal member arranged inside the housing for hydraulic actuation between a valve-open position and a valve-closed position, the valve-open position permitting draining fluid flow between the entrance port and the drain port, and the valve-closed position resisting said draining fluid flow;
a fluid-flow restriction valve disposed in a first fluid path along which control fluid may flow in a first direction from the control port towards the entrance port, the fluid-flow restriction valve structured to generate a back-pressure responsive to a flow of the control fluid in the first direction, the back-pressure being effective to urge flow of actuation fluid toward the seal member; and
a bleed-down port configured and arranged to permit evacuation, as bleed-down fluid, of actuation fluid confined by the seal member.
7. The hydraulically actuated valve of claim 6 , wherein:
flow of said actuation fluid under said back-pressure is effective to actuate said seal member toward a closed configuration.