| 摘要 |
An endotracheal tube has an inflatable cuff of undulatory bellows-like configuration to provide spaced circumferential convolutions, whereby cuff contact in establishing a labyrinth seal with the intubated patient's trachea is restricted to narrow bands so as to reduce the extent, and consequential healing-time, of any pressure-induced necrosis. A cuff convoluted over only part of its length is provided on a tracheostomy tube, and alternative configurations of cuff of partially-convoluted form and involving cylindrical shoulders of different lengths, are used for endotracheal and tracheostomy tubes. The cuff in each case is inflated from an air-line that includes a pilot balloon and is coupled into a passageway which is incorporated in the tube wall and which opens through the wall into the cuff. |
