INSTRUMENTS

The present invention consists of a portable container for medical or dental instruments ) 5 which are brought into contact with sensitive external or, in particular, internal surface parts of the human body, and being of the type described in the introduction to claim No. 1. The present invention mainly aims at holding in readiness for use gynecological tools, i.e. instruments for vaginal distention as used in gynecological examinations.

10 Today's practice in general implies that the sterilized gynecological instruments are placed on a tray from which the physician can readily pick up the instrument which consists of two, possibly connected, parts of a speculum with their respective handle parts, the distending parts of which are protruding almost perpendicularly outward. The instrument is then introduced into the vagina and distended by manipulation of the

15 handle parts. The distending parts may consist of, e.g., a wide tongue-shaped section at one part of the instrument and a somewhat more narrow, flat section at the other. The instrument is manufactured from metal, and discomfort is a common experience to the patient when the cold instrument is introduced into the vagina. In general, ill people are willing to accept certain discomforts in relation to medical examinations, but when

20 gynecological examinations are concerned, the persons in question are often in perfect health and do not need to accept any unnecessary discomfort in connection with e.g. examinations in screening programs. The present invention has made obvious the absurdity of the fact that many people are in this way being exposed to undue discomfort just because they have to suffer an unpleasantly cold feeling of the touch. One further

25 implication is that the examined person does not properly relax, so that the examination itself may be compromised. Such a problem ought to be easily solved by just using adequate materials for the manufacturing of the instruments. However, these are still being made from metal and, furthermore, a possible introduction of new and more suitable materials cannot solve the problem as far as the already existing metal instru-

30 ments are concerned.

From the German patent document No. 2944767, a relevant container for instruments is known which can be placed in a reasonably convenient position in relation to the

physician's working position, and on the vertical front of which are placed groups of cylinders for the disposition of various tools and instruments. Frontally, these cylinders are open, stretching backwards and slightly shelving into a block element, in such a way that the various groups of openings are presented in different block elements, which are individually detachable from a supporting rack. In this way, the physician is able to select relevant instruments by seizing them by their readily available parts and removing them from their respective cylinders. Furthermore, the intention is to use the cylinders for sterilized as well as soiled instruments. On this background, it is emphasized as an advantage that the block elements can be separately inserted and removed for cleaning and sterilization as needed. In passing, it is mentioned that the block elements can be provided with heating elements for warming of the instruments.

The number of physicians will be very limited who can find any realistic use of such a multicontainen Not least, the mixture of sterilized and soiled instruments within the same container will be recognized as precarious. Especially when warming of the instruments is concerned, such a combined system will be prohibitive: the microbiological growth conditions will be much too good. Furthermore, it is nowhere mentioned how the necessary cleaning can take place.

Under all circumstances, this multicontainer is quite unsuitable when gynecological instruments are concerned, since these will presumably drop to the floor if placed in the container.

With respect to warming the instruments, it is important to emphasize that there is no particular merit in pointing out this possibility. On the contrary, it is a matter of course to ensure that the instruments are suitably »warmed«, i.e. neither especially warm nor especially cold, when used for examinations. When, for example, a medical instrument is taken from a cool depository room to a warm examination room, the physician will take care not to use the instrument immediately; warming of the instrument by placing it on a radiator is a well known procedure, so that its temperature can approach that of the human body. In this context, »warming« is understood as a heating of the instrument until a temperature somewhat above room temperature has been achieved so as to

reduce the patient's sensation of relative cold. Already this simple precaution is, of course, beneficial to the patient.

With the present invention, however, it has been recognized and thereafter further investigated that, e.g. a gynecological instrument, which has been warmed up till a temperature of, e.g. 30°C, is still felt distinctly cold. Although the patient's discomfort caused by the temperature has been somewhat diminished, she still experiences the instrument as being unpleasantly cold. The present invention aims at totally abolishing this discomfort. Quite unexpectedly, it was also shown that the fulfillment of this aim implies a very precise control of the warming, since discomfort is experienced already at a deviation of only ± 1°C from the normal human body temperature. A deviation of ± 0.5°C will by most people hardly be perceived, whereas an increase of the deviation of ± 1°C from the body temperature will be recognized as an unpleasant sensation. The explanation is that the increase of the body temperature follows an exponential curve. The perception of discomfort has thus been shown to appear whether the temperature is just below or just above body temperature.

In spite of all good intentions, an uncontrolled warming of the instruments will therefore only occasionally and only by pure chance lead to just that temperature at which the patient avoids all discomfort. For all the initiatives taken so far, it is still a common phenomenon - especially during gynecological examinations - that the patient has to submit to perceptible discomfort, which does in no way encourage the willingness to partake in the examination and which does also not promote the desired quality of the examination.

On the basis of the present invention it is concluded that it is now possible to not only reduce but to completely abolish such unpleasantness and hence to improve the quality of the examination. A prerequisite for obtaining this goal is that the heating of the instruments, or parts of the instruments, which are brought into contact with the patient's body is performed under extremely close control.

On this background, the present invention, i.e. a high accuracy thermostatically controlled and portable container for medical instruments, is unique in that it has been designed as stated in the characterizing part of claim No. 1.

Referring to claim No. 2, a maximum of hygienic standard is achieved, since the channels are without assemblings or indentations which means that accumulation of impurities and bacteria growth are avoided. At the same time, cleaning of the equipment is facilitated because the cylinders are open at both ends.

Referring to claim No. 3, a proper and secure fixation of the medical instruments is achieved. With respect to gynecological instruments, it is a direct prerequisite that the inclination of the cylinders equals zero or is at least of a modest magnitude, since the instruments will otherwise simply drop out of the container due to the weight of the handles.

Referring to claim No. 4 it is achieved that the light cylinders can be separately removed for cleaning and sterilization, so that no major parts of the container need to be involved in this process.

Another possible solution, however, would be to clean and sterilize the cylinders block by block.

Referring to claim No. 5 it is achieved that cleaning of the cylinders is especially facilitated.

Referring to claim No. 6 it is achieved that the container can function as a non- voluminous element, which makes it easy for the physician to seize the projecting handle parts of the instruments. Furthermore, when cleaning and sterilizing the container it will suffice to treat only the used cylinders instead of the whole block with its several cylinders.

The container can be mounted in several ways, e.g. on a floor stand, on a wall, or in connection with an examination couch, either wall-mounted, standing on a table, or

attached to the frame. The container is not intended to contain used instruments. It can be manufactured as a light entity with, e.g. only 1-3 cylinders, which is the reason why it is easy to place so that a maximum of utility is obtained.

In the following, the invention is explained in more detail, with reference to the drawing in which

Fig. 1 is a perspective illustration of a container for medical instruments according to the invention, and

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional illustration of the same.

The container consists of a block (2) which is provided with two through-going cylindrical cavities or channels (4) into which a cylinder (6) is inserted from above. At the top, the cylinder is provided with a flange (8). From the drawing it is seen, that the block is horizontally positioned on a supporting plane from which the block itself and thus the channels (4) stand steeply erect. As appears from Fig. 2, each of the cylinders can readily receive the active parts of a gynecological instrument (12), the handle (14) of which will be outwardly projecting, possibly with a slight downward inclination from the upper area, thus being easily sizable for the physician.

The walls of the channels (4) consist of solid elements with no assemblings and are embedded by heating foil or another active heating element (15), the power supply being mediated by an electric wire (16). A thermal unit (18) is connected to the heating element (Fig. 2). In connection with a circuit board (20), a thermostat is installed for switching on and off the heating elements in dependence of the temperature registered by the thermal unit. The electronic equipment includes an extra thermal unit in order to guard against any heating considerably above normal body temperature.

The cylinders are manufactured from metal or another heat-conducting material. In general, a heating effect in the order of magnitude of 10 W will suffice, which means that the equipment will be very inexpensive to run.

Since the cylinders can be opened from both ends, they will be especially easy to clean.

It should be emphasized that the thermostatic control, mediated by the thermal unit, should be very accurate since the aim is to achieve a temperature of the instruments inside the cylinders of only ± 0.5°C in relation to the normal human body temperature. For the same reason, the diameter of the cylinders should, of course, be such that the cylinders are reasonably tight-fitting in relation to the shape and size of the instruments including, e.g. mirrors. It has also been found appropriate to have the heating element consist of a plate covering which tightly encases each cylinder during almost its entire length.

It is emphasized that the cylinders should preferably be provided with a detachable bottom, since their cleaning is thereby considerably facilitated.

Although, as already mentioned, the thermostatic control is an important aspect of the invention it has nevertheless been considered unnecessary in the present context to describe in more detail its mechanism of action, since this is a purely technical matter.