General Purpose Disposable Obstetrical And Surgical Leggings

Abstract

Disposable surgical leggings are provided for covering the upraised legs of a surgical patient. The leggings are made of a single sheet of flexible nonwoven material so folded and adhesively secured in order to form a compact package that is readily opened to afford an envelopelike leggings structure closed at one end.

Description

BACKGROUND

The present invention relates generally to disposable surgical leggings for covering the upraised legs of a surgical patient and, more particularly, to an improved method of fabricating and folding a disposable surgical legging, and the resulting article.

In operating room procedures involving childbirth, gynecological surgery, and perineal surgery, the patient is usually placed in a supine position with legs spread and held in an elevated attitude by suitable stirrups. During delivery or surgery it is common practice to cover the legs and other areas of the patient not directly involved in the procedure with protective sterile material. Up until recent years, this material has been woven cloth, carefully sterilized before use. However, because of the high costs involved in laundering, sterilizing, and storing the cloth material, hospitals now are gradually changing to disposables, which after a single use may be thrown away or burned.

The suppliers of such disposables try to provide all the draping materials required for a specific surgical procedure in a unitary sealed and sterilized package or kit. These packages contain such items as towels, sponges, operating table covers, drape sheets for the patient, and surgical incision sheets, all designed, assembled, and packed in accordance with the particular needs of the hospital being served. Each of the items is prefolded, individually labeled and, in many cases, presterilized.

Representative patents describing some of the items involved include U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,715,902; 3,030,957; 3,037,507; 3,182,656; 3,236,370; and 3,251,360.

As most of the items are prefolded for compact packaging purposes, it has been found that even when the user is completely familiar with the particular package, difficulties are often encountered in properly unfolding some of the specialty drapes. This is especially true of the leggings, which must be grasped by the nurse or assistant so that they open readily for placement over the upraised legs or other extremities. In the prior art, the leggings comprise loosely fitting rectangular shaped stockings, or open-ended flat envelopes which resemble pillow cases. The open end of the conventional legging is provided with exterior cuffs into which the nurse's hands are inserted for application to the patient. By spreading the hands apart, the top of the legging is opened whereupon the legging may be placed over the patient's legs. However, with this arrangement it is quite easy for the hands of the nurse to slip out, in which case the drape may fall to the floor. Also, unless extreme care is exercised, it is easy to place the hands in the cuffs in the wrong position, and the legging will not open properly. Because draping the patient must be done as quickly as possible it is desirable to provide a legging which may be handled with less chance of failure. This invention is directed particularly to solving the latter problem.

OBJECTS

It is a primary object of the present invention to provide an improved surgical legging that fits a wide range of surgical equipment. In this connection, a more particular object of the invention is to provide such an improved surgical legging that fits the "gooseneck" or sling support fixtures as well as the leg support or stirrup-type fixtures on a surgical table.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an improved method of manufacturing and folding an improved surgical legging of the type described above.

A further object of the invention is to provide an improved method of folding a surgical legging of the foregoing type so that the legging can be handled and placed on the patient by a single nonsterile nurse or assistant.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Other objects, aims, and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the following description proceeds, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective of a blank which is to be folded and assembled to form the legging of the invention (FIG. 8);

FIG. 2 depicts the blank of FIG. 1 in its first stage of folding and with an adhesive applied to one end of the blank;

FIGS. 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 depict successive stages of folding and assembling the initial blank of FIG. 1 to form the final leggings package of FIG. 8;

FIG. 8 is a perspective of the assembled legging structure of the invention, two of which are commonly employed in a surgical package or kit;

FIG. 9 depicts the legging package of FIG. 8 as the various sections are unfolded by an operating room nurse or technician prior to application to the patient, and

FIGS. 10 and 11 depict the legging of the present invention and illustrate an alternative folding thereof, wherein one of the transversely folded end portions is tucked under the triangular portion.

While the invention is susceptible of various modifications and alternative forms, a specific embodiment thereof has been shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that it is not intended to limit the invention to the particular form disclosed, but, on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as expressed in the appended claims.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Turning first to FIG. 1, a cut blank or panel 10 is shown in perspective view before the blank 10 is folded and assembled to form the completed legging 11, shown in FIG. 8.

The material constituting the panel 10 is advantageously a nonwoven fabric, that is, a flexible textile structure composed of a web or mat of fibers held together with a bonding material. If desired, the web may be reinforced by longitudinal and transverse scrim threads, not shown, to afford additional strength and durability. Nonwoven fabrics are generally characterized by being of sufficiently low cost that may be discarded after a single use, a feature which is of evident utility in hospitals and the like where the cost of laundering, sterilizing, and storing of conventional cloth materials is economically unattractive. Nonwoven fabrics are more fully described in a variety of technical publications, including the book "Nonwoven Fabrics" by F. M. Buresh, published by Reinhold in 1962. For the present purposes, nonwoven fabrics used to make the initial blank 10 are desirably of a material which can be sterilized, either by autoclaving or by exposure to a bacteriocidally effective gas such as ethylene oxide, and to this end either the cellulosics or the synthetic fibers, e.g. polyethylene terephthalate are eminently suitable.

The blank 10 consists of a generally rectangular body portion 12 and a generally triangular extension 14 along one side of the body portion 12. Although the particular dimensions of the respective portions are not critical, it has been found that for most adult patients the rectangular body portion 12 should have a length "a " of about 66 inches and a width "b " of about 34 inches. The triangular extension 14 desirably extends about 17 inches from the body portion 12, and accordingly dimension "c " is about 51 inches.

The blank 10 is symmetrical about a center fold line 16 which passes through the apex of the generally triangular extension 14. For descriptive purposes, the panels on either side of the center fold lines 16 will be hereinafter referred to as the front panel 18 and the back panel 19. In the view of FIG. 1, the surface toward the viewer is the interior surface of the final legging structure.

To commence assembling the panel 10 into the final legging 11 (FIG. 8), the generally triangular extension 14 is roll folded twice along fold lines 20 and 21, as shown in FIGs. 1 and 2 taken in conjunction. Folding is toward the exterior surface of the panel 10, that is, away from the viewer from the aspect of FIGS. 1 and 2, so that the rolled triangular extension 14, as shown in the cutaway of FIG. 2, is on the underside or exterior portion of the panel.

Prior to further folding of the blank 10 an adhesive is applied along an adhesive line 22 on the interior surface of the back panel 19. Additionally and optionally, a second adhesive line 24 is applied to the same surface of the panel 19 on the edge opposite the center fold line 16. The length of this second adhesive line 24, designated "d " in FIG. 2, is desirably a substantial fraction of the dimension "b " of FIG. 1, illustratively a distance of about 20 inches from the end of the blank 10 opposite the triangular extension 14.

Following application of the adhesive line 22 and the optional adhesive line 24 of FIG. 2, the blank 10 is folded along the center fold line 16 as illustrated in FIG. 3. Thus, the interior surfaces of the front panel 18 and the back panel 19 are in juxtaposition, and the corresponding edges of the panels 18, 19 are secured along the adhesive lines 22, 24 so as to form a flat elongate envelope with a closed bottom and an open top including the triangular extension 14. It is to be noted that the extension 14 is now in the exterior of the resulting envelope, and defines an unsecured pocket, the function of which will become apparent as the present description proceeds.

FIGS. 3, 4, and 5, taken in conjunction illustrate the next sequence of folds applied to the legging. The closed bottom 23 is then folded toward the triangular extension 14 in a fan-folded manner along the respective transverse fold lines 25, 26, 28, all as illustrated in FIGS. 3 through 5, inclusive. Thus, the closed bottom 23 is folded upward along the fold line 25 to a position shown in FIG. 4, and the fold line 25 in turn folded downward along the fold line 26 as indicated in FIG. 5.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged view of the sequential step subsequent to FIG. 5. The panels previously folded along the fold lines 25 and 26 are folded upward along the transverse fold line 28 and tucked under the roll folded triangular extension 14.

After being folded into the intermediate position of FIG. 6, the legging is again folded, this time to form an approximately square flat final package. The folds are long transverse fold lines 19, 30, as shown in FIG. 7, located at approximately equal distances along the length of the FIG. 6 subassembly, One end is folded up along the fold line 29 while the other end is folded down along the fold line 30 to form a "Z" arrangement to facilitate easy unfolding as is shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, the end folded at 29 may also be tucked under the triangular portion 14 as is shown in FIG. 7, so that the end is held captive until it is desired that the drape be unfolded.

The final legging 11 is depicted in FIG. 8, in the form in which it is placed within the sealed package described earlier. Legends may be printed on the legging package 11 to indicate that the package is a legging, and to describe the manner of unfolding the package to the envelopelike structure that is to be placed over a patient's upraised leg.

Unfolding is illustrated in FIG. 9. The folded legging 11 of FIG. 8 is positioned by the nurse or surgical attendant so that the legend "top" is at the top of the package. The nurse places her right hand within the folded triangular extension 14 and elevates the package, permitting unfolding along fold lines 29, 30, or, in other words, in a sequence opposite that shown in FIGS. 6, 7, and 8. Next, the panels are withdrawn from the cocked position of FIG. 6 merely by placing the open end of the envelope over the patient' s leg and advancing the legging toward the patient's body. This causes the legging to unfold, first along the fold line 28 and thereafter along the fold lines 26 and 25, respectively, to an intermediate position illustrated by the fold lines 25' and 26'. Similarly, another legging is opened over the patient's other leg.

After the obstetric or surgical procedure has been concluded, the legging can be removed and disposed of.

Thus it is apparent that there has been provided, in accordance with the invention, an improved disposable surgical legging which fully satisfies the objectives, aims, and advantages recited above. While the invention has been described in conjunction with a specific embodiment, it is evident that alternatives, variations, and modifications will be apparent to those skilled in the art in light of the foregoing description Accordingly, it is intended to embrace all such alternatives, variations, and modifications as fall within the spirit and broad scope of the appended claims.

Claims

The following is claimed as our invention:

1. An improved disposable surgical legging for covering the upraised leg of a surgical patient, comprising:

a sheet of flexible nonwoven fabric material having a generally rectangular body portion and a generally triangular extension on one side thereof,

said sheet being folded along a center line extending through the apex of said triangular extension so as to form front and back panels for the legging,

at least a portion of said triangular extension being roll folded over the exterior surface of the sheet before the sheet is folded along said center line,

said front and back panels being attached to each other along the opposed edges thereof on the opposite side of said sheet from said triangular extension so as to form a flat elongated envelope with a closed bottom and an open top including said triangular extension,

said opposed edges of said front and back panels opposite the center fold line being attached to each other along a substantial distance from said closed bottom,

said legging being fan folded longitudinally along a plurality of transverse fold lines, said longitudinally fan folded portion of said legging being tucked under the roll folded portion of said triangular extension on one of the exterior surfaces of the legging,

said tucked fan folded portion being further fan folded transversely along a pair of longitudinal fold lines so that the fold along said center line is disposed at one edge of the final folded legging, with an adjacent portion of the roll folded triangular extension exposed on at least one side of the final folded unit.

2. Legging of claim 1 wherein said transversely fan folded portion of said legging is tucked under the roll folded portion of said triangular extension on the other exterior surface of the legging.