Video-Guided Chest Tube Insertion System
BACKGROUND
Annually, thousands of chest tubes are placed into the pleural space of patients who have excessive air and/or fluid collapsing the lung. Currently, chest tube placement requires either an extremely painful “medieval” incision and clamp technique, or a trocar/dilator system. Both are “blind” procedures which often lead to poor tube position, organ damage, and in some circumstances, death.
INNOVATION
Dr. Robert Cameron, Professor of Clinical Cardiothoracic Surgery and Surgical Oncology in the Department of Surgery at UCLA, has designed a novel trocar system that supports real-time visual monitoring of chest tube placement. The device capitalizes on existing medical video technology to provide real-time monitoring and guidance of anatomical position of the chest tube during placement.
APPLICATIONS
- Adapt existing chest tube insertion systems to enable visualization of insertion in real-time
- Adapt bronchoscope systems to enable visualization of broncoscopy in real-time
ADVANTAGES
- Facilitates localized injection of anesthesia
- Improves precision of chest tube placement
- Suction channel removes fluid and/or air directly from pleural cavity while placing the tube
- Expandable balloon increases the size of the trochar portion of the device, thereby accommodating many chest tube sizes