Intravenous-Line Air-Elimination System

The present invention relates to apparatus and methods for eliminating air bubbles from intravenous lines.

It has been the object of many prior-art devices to detect the presence of air bubbles in an intravenous line. Such devices would normally set off an alarm to alert the appropriate medical personnel, who would then lightly rap the line to urge the bubbles up the line away from the patient. It is a tedious procedure to urge all the bubbles all the way up the IV line to the IV fluid reservoir. It is even more difficult to remove bubbles located downstream of a pump. Since, in an IV line that is not being pumped at high pressure, small bubbles usually do not pose much danger to the patient, busy medical personnel rarely go through the trouble of urging the bubbles all the way up the line. Consequently, the bubbles quickly move back down the line and are detected again, thereby setting off the alarm again. Thus, without an easy way of removing air from the IV line, the prior-art air-detection systems are more of a nuisance than an aid.

At least one medical apparatus in the prior art includes a line for recycling air removed from fluid back to a reservoir without opening the fluid flow loop to the environment. U.S. Pat. No. 4,874,359 to White et al. discloses a modular, power augmented medical infusion apparatus to provide rapid transfusion of relatively large quantities of blood, blood components, colloid and fluids to patients who require large quantities of these blood components to be rapidly transferred. The major components comprise a pair of filtered cardiotomy reservoirs, an air embolus sensor, a modular double roller pump, a heat exchanger, a bubble trap-filter and disposable fluid conduits. The bubble trap-filter is located in the distal most location of the recirculating loop just upstream of the Y-connector to the patient and the air sensor just downstream of the cardiotomy reservoir in the proximal location of the recirculating loop. Blood is circulated rapidly from the cardiotomy reservoir through the heat exchanger wherein it is heated or cooled as needed and through an air bubble trap filter having a nominal filtering capability of 33 microns. A secondary path from the filter is provided to permit the air trapped in the filter to be recycled to the reservoir without opening the infuser loop to the environment. The air bubble detection system uses an infra-red analyzer as a sensor. The detection system is configured to stop the pump and sound an audible alarm. It does not control the recycling of trapped air from the filter.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,764,166 to Spani discloses an ultrasonic device for detecting the presence of air in the fluid line of an IV infusion device comprises a transmitter and a receiver which are positioned to pinchingly engage a portion of the fluid line therebetween. Both the transmitter and receiver have convex-shaped lenses which contact and cause a slight indentation of the tube for enhanced coupling therebetween.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,734,269 to Clarke et al. discloses a venous reservoir bag with an integral high-efficiency bubble removal system. The system includes a container having an inlet for a fluid which includes liquid and gas bubbles, an outlet and upstream and downstream vents. A filter element is provided in the container between the inlet and the outlet. The filter element permits the passage of the liquid and inhibits the passage of the gas bubbles. The filter element is between the upstream and downstream vents so that gas bubbles can be vented through the upstream vent, and any gas bubbles downstream of the filter element can be vented through the downstream vent.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,661,097 to Fischell et al. discloses a method for removing gas bubbles from the fluid handling system of a medication infusion system implanted in a patient. Specifically, Fischell discloses a method for removing fluid and or gas bubbles from a fluid reservoir and pumping chamber by applying a vacuum or negative pressure to the inlet filter, thereby drawing gas bubbles from the pumping chamber. The invention utilizes a fluid pump of a single valve positive displacement design with the pump chamber in fluid communication with the fluid reservoir.

None of the above references disclose a system that, on detection of air in the intravenous fluid, shuts off flow of the fluid to the patient and forces the fluid towards the intravenous-fluid supply.

The present invention provides an air elimination system an intravenous-fluid delivery system that intravenously injects fluid into a patient. The invention may include an intravenous (IV) line with a chamber disposed therein where air may separate from the fluid. Also disposed in the IV line is an air detector for detecting air in the fluid and emitting a fault-condition signal, when an air bubble of a certain size is detected, or alternatively when any air bubble is detected. The IV line has a first portion between the separation chamber and the air detector, and a second portion between the air-detection means and the patient. A valve is disposed in the IV line's second portion, for permitting or preventing flow to the patient. A pump is used to urge fluid towards the separation chamber upon activation. A controller, in communication with the air detector, controls the valve and the pump. In the event of a fault-condition signal, the controller sets the valve to prevent flow to the patient and activates the pump so as to move air and fluid from the air detector to the separation chamber. Otherwise, the pump and the valve may be used to permit flow to the patient or to pump fluid to the patient.

In one embodiment, a return line connects the chamber to a point in the IV line downstream of the air detector. A pair of valves, one being disposed in the IV line and the other in the return line--or alternatively a single shunt valve--are employed to permit flow either (i) through the rerun line or (ii) to the patient. When there is a fault condition, the pump urges fluid containing the air towards the separation chamber, preferably through the return line. Alternatively, fluid may flow from the fluid source through the return line to a point below the detected air, so as to force the air up through the first portion of IV line.

In a preferred embodiment, a return line is not necessary. The air is forced up the first portion of the IV line by a reservoir of fluid located at or below where the air is detected. By configuring the volume of this reservoir to be greater than the volume of the lumen of the IV line's first portion, the air can be forced up to the separation chamber. If there is a great deal of air in the line, several iterations of this air-purging process may be necessary to eliminate all of the air.

FIG. 1 is a general view of an embodiment of an air elimination system according to the present invention.

FIGS. 2 and 3 show alternative embodiments of the air elimination systems according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 shows a preferred embodiment of an air-elimination system according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart depicting a preferred method of carrying out the invention.

FIG. 6 shows a perspective view of a preferred shape for an inlet port to a pressure-conduction chamber, which may be used with the present invention.

FIG. 7 shows a side view of the inlet-port shape shown in FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 shows a cross-section of the inlet port the shape of which is depicted in FIGS. 6 and 7.

The invention provides an apparatus and method for eliminating air from intravenous fluid delivery systems. In a preferred embodiment, an acoustic sensor is utilized to control the operation of a valve located downstream of the IV pump so that when air bubbles are detected, an isolation valve is closed to shut off the flow of IV fluid to the patient and the fluid containing the air is returned the metering chamber, the drip chamber or the intravenous-fluid source.

A system according to the present invention may include an apparatus that accurately dispenses IV fluid to the patient, using sound waves both to measure fluid flow and to detect the presence of air in the IV fluid. The apparatus includes a return line that carries fluid back to the metering chamber if and when the apparatus detects air in the fluid. Although almost any air-detection system may be used, it is intended that a preferred embodiment of the present invention be used with an apparatus that uses sound waves to measure flow and uses sound waves to detect air, such as that disclosed in the above-referenced U.S. Pat. No. 5,349,852, or the above-referenced patent application Ser. No. 08/477/380 for Intravenous-Line Air-Detection System, filed concurrently with the present application.

FIG. 1 shows an intravenous-fluid bag (or bottle) 1 and metering chamber 2, from which an IV line 3 provides fluid to the patient. Disposed in the line is a pump 4, an apparatus for detecting air and preferably for measuring flow rate 5, and a valve 7. The air-detection fluid-measurement apparatus 5 is downstream of the pump 4, and the valve 7 is located downstream of the apparatus 5. One end of the return line 8 is connected to the IV line 3 between the air-detection apparatus 5 and valve 7; its other end is connected to the metering chamber 2. Another valve, a purge valve 9, is located in the return line.

When air, or a certain amount of air, is detected, valve 7 is closed and purge valve 9 is opened. The pump 4 is turned on, forcing the fluid and the air bubbles in the air-detection apparatus 5 to return to the metering chamber 2. The metering chamber 2 allows the air bubbles to separate from the IV fluid. Other devices, such as a drip chamber, or even the IV bag (or bottle) 1, may be used to allow the air to separate from the fluid. When the air has been eliminated from the apparatus, purge valve 9 may be closed and the IV system may return to its normal pumping mode. A digital controller 10 receives information from the detector 5 regarding the presence of air, controls the opening and closing of valves 7 and 9, and controls the pump 4. The air detector 5, as well as the controller 10, may be made a part of an IV fluid control system, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,349,852 or 4,976,162. The system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,976,162 uses two valves, A and B, for isolating a portion of the IV fluid during a volume measurement cycle, and these are shown as valves 6 and 7 in FIG. 1; the valve B of U.S. Pat. No. 4,976,162 is used as valve 7 of the present invention. Valve 6 of the present invention corresponds to valve A.

In another embodiment of the present invention, the pump 4 may be located in the IV line 3 downstream of the air detector 5 but upstream of the point where the return line 8 is connected to the IV line 3, as shown in FIG. 2. The system shown in FIG. 2 has the return line returning to a simple drip chamber 12 instead of a metering chamber. FIG. 3 shows another embodiment, wherein the pump 4 is disposed in the return line 8 and the return line 8 returns fluid to the reservoir 1, and wherein a single shunt valve 11 is used instead of two separate valves 7 and 9. A disadvantage of the FIG. 3 embodiment is that the pump 4 cannot, of course, be used to pump IV fluid to the patient.

In all the foregoing embodiments it is preferred that, when air is detected, the fluid and the air bubbles from the detector 5 is pumped back to the reservoir, metering chamber or drip chamber through the return line 8. In another embodiment the pump 4 may be reversed so that the IV fluid and air bubbles in the air detector 5 are forced up the IV line 3 back to the reservoir, with fluid in the return line 8 replenishing that which has been pumped out of the detector 5. The disadvantage of such an embodiment is that the return line 8 must be attached to the reservoir, metering chamber or drip chamber below the water-line; otherwise the pump will draw air into the return line instead of fluid, and, if the pumping continues long enough, this air will move into the IV line 3 and the air detector 5.

A disposable cassette may be used in the present invention. The cassette may include the disposable portions of the valves 6 and 7, the pump 4 and the air detector 5. The pump 4 and the air detector 5 may use the same chamber-specifically, a pressure-conduction chamber-to perform the air detection and the pumping. The valves and pressure-conduction chamber disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,515, which is incorporated herein by reference, may be used as valves 6, 7 and or 9, and for the air detector 5 and or the pump 4. The body of the cassette is made of relatively rigid material, such as a thermoplastic, and one or several flexible membranes are disposed on the rigid body to form the membranes of the valves and the pressure-conduction chamber. The flexible tube portions of the IV line 3 and the return line 8 may be connected to the rigid portion of the cassette, so as to communicate with the fluid passageways within the cassette. The disposable cassette is placed into a housing that can actuate the valves 7 and 8, and that can detect the presence of air and or the amount of fluid in the pressure-conduction chamber.

FIG. 4 shows a preferred embodiment of the invention. In the FIG. 4 embodiment, a return line is not used, and the fluid containing the air is forced up the portion 31 of the IV line between the separation chamber--which is, in the depicted arrangement, the drip chamber 12--and the air detector 5. As noted above, the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 can force the fluid containing the air up through the IV line, by introducing additional fluid from below the air detector by the return line. In the FIG. 4 embodiment, the pressure-conduction chamber 50, where the air is detected, is able to hold a maximum volume of fluid that is greater than the volume of fluid contained in the lumen 32 of the IV line's upper portion 31. This arrangement permits all of the air that may be present in the IV fluid in the pressure conduction chamber 50 to be forced up through the IV line's upper portion 31 to the drip chamber 12, or other separation chamber. This arrangement limits the length of the IV line's upper portion 31. If it is desired to have a longer upper portion 31 to the IV line, then the diameter of the upper portion's lumen 32 must be made smaller and or the maximum volume of the pressure-conduction chamber must be increased. It is, however, undesirable to make the pressure-conduction chamber too large, because if it is too large the accuracy of the flow-rate measurements may be reduced.

As with the embodiments of FIGS. 1-3, the pressure-conduction chamber 50, along with the portions of the valves 6, 7 that come into contact with the IV fluid, are preferably located in a cassette, which is disposable along with the upper portion 31 and the lower portion 33 of the IV line. The rest of the hardware for detecting air is located in a housing that receives and holds the cassette, and which does not come into direct contact with the IV fluid. The hardware preferably used to detect air bubbles in pressure-conduction chamber 50 is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,349,852, or the above-referenced patent application for Intravenous-Line Air-Detection System, filed concurrently with the present application. A preferred embodiment of such an air-detection system uses a loudspeaker 81 mounted between two chambers 86, 87. The forward chamber 86 is connected to the cavity 85 that receives the pressure-conduction chamber 50 by a port 84 that is tuned for creating a resonance. The forward chamber 86 has a microphone 82 for detecting the resonance, and the rear chamber 87 has a microphone 83 for use in calibrating the air-detection system. This air-detection system can also function as a volume-measurement system, measuring the volume of the IV fluid in the pressure-conduction chamber 50 (as described for instance in U.S. Pat. No. 5,349,852), so that the flow rate to the patient can be monitored and controlled.

The pressure-conduction chamber 50 containing the IV fluid is separated from the air (or other gas) in the housing's cavity 85 by a fluid-impermeable membrane 41. By applying a pressure against this membrane 41, such as by a pressure source 42 through the forward chamber 86 and the port 84 of the air-detection system, the fluid can be forced out of the pressure-conduction chamber 50. If valve 6 is closed and valve 7 open, then the IV fluid is pumped towards the patient. If air (or at least a previously set amount of air) is detected in the pressure-conduction chamber 50, the control system causes outlet valve 7 to remain closed, opens inlet valve 6, and activates the pressure source 42 so as to force the fluid up through the upper portion 31 of the IV line.

Preferably, the pressure-conduction chamber 50 is held so that the port 56 leading from the inlet valve 6 is located at the upper end of the chamber 50 so that any air bubbles are likely to be located near the port 56 when the pumping arrangement is activated to force the bubble up to the drip chamber 12. Thus, when the pressure source 42 applies the pressure against the membrane 41, the bubble will immediately be forced all the way to the drip chamber 12. A membrane 41 having a structure that collapses asymmetrically, such as the membrane described in the above-referenced, concurrently filed application Ser. No. 08/478,065, entitled "Cassette for Intravenous-Line Flow-Control System," for an invention by Houle and Larkins, may be used to obtain an uneven collapse of the membrane 41 when gas pressure is applied from the pressure source 42, wherein the collapse begins in the lower half of the membrane 41 so as to force the fluid and any bubbles in the bottom half of the chamber 50 to the top of the chamber, before the top portion of the membrane 50 collapses. When the top portion of the membrane collapses, the fluid remaining in the chamber 50 is forced up through the upper portion 31 of the IV line 3.

If the bubble is large enough, not all of the bubble may have been forced all the way to the drip chamber 12 after the pressure source 42 has forced all of the IV fluid out of the pressure conduction chamber 50. In such a situation, several iterations of the purging process may be required. Specifically, after the membrane 41 is forced to the left as far as it can go so that no more fluid (including both the IV fluid and the air) can be forced out of the pressure-conduction chamber 50, more IV fluid can be allowed to flow from the drip chamber 12 through the upper portion 31 of the IV line into the pressure-conduction chamber 50, in order to fill the pressure-conduction chamber to its maximum volume. A portion of the original air bubble or bubbles should have separated from this additional IV fluid in the drip chamber. This additional IV fluid can be allowed to flow to the pressure-conduction chamber 50 by force of gravity alone, or preferably the pressure source 42 (which can include a reciprocating piston, a pump, or positive- and negative-pressure sources) can provide a negative pressure to the membrane 41, so as to draw IV fluid into the pressure-conduction chamber 50 more quickly. The size of the air bubble should now be much smaller. If it is large enough to have a fault-condition signal generated by the air detection system, valve 6 will be opened, and a positive pressure reapplied to the membrane 41 by the pressure source 42. What is left of the bubble is then forced up the IV line's upper portion 31, and some or all of the bubble should enter the drip chamber and separate from the IV fluid. If a portion of the bubble still remains in the pressure-conduction chamber 50 after it is again refilled, the purging process is repeated.

The foregoing process is represented in the flowchart of FIG. 5. This process shows how air may be routinely purged from the IV fluid before reaching the patient and without requiring the intervention of any medical personnel. Although it is preferred to use the pumping mechanism (e.g., a peristaltic pump, or a pressure source 42 acting on the membrane 41 as shown in FIG. 4), to draw fluid into the chamber 50 from the fluid source 1 or to force fluid to the patient, gravity may be used instead. Additional steps may be added to the process-after no air is detected and before the outlet valve 7 is opened, and then after the outlet valve 7 is closed and before the inlet valve 6 is opened-in order to measure the mount of fluid dispensed to the patient.

The present invention is useful for re-priming an IV line after an IV source 1 has emptied and been replaced. Frequently, in such situations the whole upper portion 31 of the IV line may be filled with air. (With the present invention, the air-detection system should have kept the IV line's lower portion 33 filled with IV fluid.) Once the new IV source 1 is provided, air in the pressure-conduction chamber 50 is forced up through IV line's upper portion 31. IV fluid from the source 1 should be present in the drip chamber 12, so that when the system draws fluid down to the pressure-conduction chamber, at least some of that fluid should be IV fluid. The air and the IV fluid are then forced out of the pressure-conduction chamber 50 again--with the air being forced out first since the liquid should have fallen to the bottom of the pressure-conduction chamber 50. Once again, fluid is drawn into the pressure-conduction chamber 50, and since the air should have separated from the liquid in the drip chamber 12, more IV fluid should be drawn into the pressure-conduction chamber 50 than before. These steps are repeated until the air detector senses that the pressure-conduction chamber 50 is filled with IV fluid without any air bubbles (or until the amount of air is sufficiently low).

In the situation where the air bubble is not located near the inlet port 56 but instead is sticking to the membrane 41 or the wall of the pressure-conduction chamber 50, several repetitions of forcing fluid up and down the IV line's upper portion 31 will usually dislodge the bubble, thereby allowing the bubble to float up towards the inlet port 56 which should be at the top of the pressure-conduction chamber. Once the bubble moves near the inlet port 56, it should be forced out of the pressure-conduction chamber 50 with the next purge of fluid up the IV line's upper portion 31.

Preferably, the inlet port 56 is shaped so that a small bubble will not tend to stick to an edge of the port while allowing liquid to flow past it. If the bubble is large, it is likely that at least a portion of it will be forced up through the IV line's upper portion 31, regardless of the port's shape; a small bubble, however, may be more difficult to dislodge. (Small bubbles are less of a concern than large bubbles, so the air-detection system may be calibrated to ignore bubbles that are small enough.) To prevent such sticking of a small bubble, the port 56 preferably flares out so that the corner where the port 56 meets the inner wall of the pressure-conduction chamber 50 is greater than 90.degree., making the corner less likely a place where the bubble will stick. However, the mouth of the port 56 cannot be so large that liquid can easily flow by the bubble when fluid is exiting the pressure-conduction through the port 56. In order to accomplish this, the port must be sized and shaped so that the surface tension of the IV fluid being forced upward from the pressure-conduction chamber 50 forces a bubble located at the port 56 up through the inlet valve 6. It is also preferable that the port 56 be sized and shaped so that when liquid is pulled back into the pressure-conduction chamber 50, the bubble can hover near the port as liquid passes around it. A preferred inlet port 56 shape is shown in FIGS. 6 and 7. The port's size increases from the end 57 that connects to the IV line's upper portion 31 to the end 58 leading into the pressure-conduction chamber. FIG. 8 shows a cross-section of the inlet valve 56. Since the pressure-conduction chamber is preferably curved--and preferably generally hemispherical--in order to make it easier for the pressure-conduction chamber's membrane (item 41 in FIG. 4) to force as much fluid as possible out of the pressure-conduction chamber, the mouth at the chamber end 57 of the port 56 is curved. It has been found that providing an inlet port to the pressure-conduction chamber with this shape improves the air-elimination system's ability to purge bubbles from the chamber.

Although the invention has been described with reference to several preferred embodiments, it will be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art that various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention, as set forth in the claims hereinbelow.