Cart Top X-ray Cassette Holder

Abstract

A cart top X-ray cassette holder having an elongated and substantially rectangularly shaped frame. The frame is of a length of little greater than the height of an average adult human being and may serve as a stretcher. Its top is substantially flat and made of a radiolucent material. Positioned beneath in close proximity and substantially parallel thereto is a bottom wall member. A plurality of film receiving compartments are formed within the frame by guide members attached to the top and bottom wall members with the mouths of said film receiving compartments being formed by the vertical open spaces around the periphery of the frame between the guides or side wall members. The frame is designed to have the open mouth of adjacent film receiving compartment formed along different peripheral sides and to have each adjacent film receiving compartment overlap each other along at least one edge where substantially the entire top of the frame can be employed for the taking of X-rays of a human being positioned thereon.

Parent Case Text

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation-in-part of my application Ser. No. 116,391, filed Feb. 18, 1971 (now abandoned).

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a portable table or cart top platform which is placed under a human being for the purpose of making an X-ray examination of the patient. Now many patients brought to a hospital, and particularly unconscious accident victims, have multiple injuries, and, require a number or series of X-ray pictures to determine the extent of their injuries. With many of the present X-ray tables it is necessary to constantly reposition the patient upon the table in order to place that part of the patient's anatomy to be photographed over the specific areas that hold the X-ray cassettes. In other cases the patient had his body raised up so that the X-ray cassette could be placed under his body. All of these instances and additional cases where the patient had to be returned to the X-ray table for more X-rays, made for repeated handling movements to the patient's body. These movements can be dangerous and very disturbing to the patient and can also be very detrimental to his recovery. There are further instances where the patient's body has been so seriously injured that only minimal movement should be attempted, especially in cases of possible back or spinal fractures. Often in multiple injury cases, diagnoses are missed, only to be detected later when it is too late to reduce or correct them.

In none of the cases where an operating table is used is there an arrangement for the full length of the adult's body available for X-ray without interruptions in the X-ray plates used. A good example of this is in the U.S. Pat. to Chervenka 3,065,344 of Nov. 20, 1962, where a surgical operating table is illustrated having sections for the head, back and shoulders, feet and legs of the patient, each one of these sections being spaced from its adjacent section so that there is an interruption of any X-rays that might be taken designed to show the entire length of the body. No arrangement is provided to cover the spacing between the sections. Further, this being an operating table, the patient must be moved onto this table from some stretcher or the like.

A further example is shown in French patent 1,190,203 where an operating table is shown which has sufficient spacing between the X-ray permeable top and some base for the insertion of cassettes which are positioned in these slots one at a time and may be slid along the slots without any guide whatsoever. The operating table is of insufficient length to accommodate the length of the adult human body.

Cassettes which are used are usually provided with an X-ray film which is in a frame having a border which is more or less opaque and would interfere with any X-ray attempted to be taken through the border.

Consequently in order to get an uninterrupted X-ray picture of the entire length of the human being some different arrangement must be provided that is shown in either of the patents above referred to.

It is an object of the invention to provide a portable stretcher table or cart top that provides a plurality of film receiving compartments so positioned beneath its top wall member that any part of a patient placed thereon may be X-rayed without the necessity of repositioning or lifting him.

It is also an object of the invention to provide an X-ray platform that may be placed on top of the mobile beds thus eliminating the need to transport the patient to an X-ray table.

It is an object of the invention to provide an X-ray platform that could double as a stretcher thus allowing a critically injured person to be initially placed thereon or placed thereon upon arrival at the hospital which would eliminate the need to move the patient needlessly until completion of any necessary X-rays.

It is a further object of the invention to provide an X-ray platform of an economical design which eliminates complex mechanical structure.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is a portable platform used for the purpose of taking X-rays of a human being placed thereon. It is basically an elongated substantially rectangular frame with the top wall member made of a radiolucent material such as plywood. A bottom wall member is positioned with its top surface substantially parallel to the top wall member and in close proximity thereto. A plurality of film receiving compartments are formed within said frame by guide members attached to the top and bottom wall members with the mouths of the film receiving compartments being formed by the vertical open spaces around the periphery of the frame between the side wall members. Into each of these film receiving compartments may be slid bordered X-ray cassettes of the same size with these compartments having openings along all four of the vertical walls of the frame. The film receiving compartments are so positioned that the borders of X-ray cassettes positioned in adjacent compartments overlap each other along at least one edge to the width of the borders whereby except for small strip areas around the primeter of the frame the whole body of a human being placed on top of the platform may be X-rayed without the necessity of relocating or repositioning the body. Arcuate cut out portions formed in the top and bottom walls at the mouths of the film receiving compartments provide access to the cassettes for easier withdrawal.

The portable stretcher or cart top X-ray cassette holder is formed from a minimum number of parts which are quickly and easily assembled. No com-plicated mechanical structure is required nor is it necessary to have tracks along which the cassettes may be slid. No hardware is involved in the structure nor are there any adjustable parts.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of the cart top X-ray cassette holder;

FIG. 2 is a side view of the device;

FIG. 3 is a view taken along line 3--3 of FIG. 2 showing in dot-dash lines the position a cassette would have in its compartment;

FIG. 4 is a top plan view of an X-ray cassette; and

FIG. 5 is a front elevation view of the X-ray cassette.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring to FIGS. 1-3 of the drawings, the cart top X-ray cassette holder is generally designated by the numeral 10. The top wall member 12 is rectangularly shaped and is made of a radiolucent material such as plywood. Although not shown in the drawings, a thin sheet of high pressure plastic laminate would normally be adhered thereto to provide a surface which could easily be cleansed of blood stains or other fluids dripped thereon. A plastic layer would also aid in providing a surface of reduced friction for sliding the patients on and off. The bottom wall member 14 of the frame is parallel to the top wall member and spaced in close proximity thereto. Side wall or guide members 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20 have edges which define guides for directing the edges of a cassette and are attached to the top and bottom wall members to form a plurality of film receiving compartments within the frame. Each film receiving compartment has a mouth formed by the vertical open spaces between the edges of adjacent side wall members and direct the cassette generally at right angles to the edges forming the open mouth through which it is positioned. Each cassette comprises essentially a frame 26 containing an X-ray film plate 27. The frame 26 provides a border about the film plate so that the usable area of the plate is within the border. As seen in FIG. 3 the cassettes when inserted into the film receiving compartments would occupy the areas shown by dot dash lines and designated 25'. Normally one cassette is exposed at a time and in order to be sure that all the areas of the patient are X-rayed, the adjacent film receiving compartments are formed having their adjacent edges overlapping in a dimension at least the dimension of two cassette frame borders such as 26 (FIG. 3) so that the usable area of the film 27 within the border 26 may be placed side by side after sequential exposures and removal from the frame with their edges abutting or slightly overlapping so that there will be no hiatus or interruption of continuity of the entire length of the human body. The width of the cassettes are normally just slightly smaller than the width of the openings formed in the side walls or guide members of the frame. The cassettes when inserted to their full extent align themselves by surfacing against one of the inner faces of one of the side walls or guide members and establish the desired position of border overlap as pointed out above. Arcuate cutout portions 22 formed in the top and bottom wall members aid in withdrawing the cassettes from the film receiving compartments.

It will therefore be seen that there is provided a cart top X-ray cassette holder of simple construction and in which a continuous X-ray picture of an injured individual may be taken since in its preferred form the X-ray opaque cassette frame border section has been effectively overlapped from adjoining compartments such that either abutting X-ray films may be received or just partially overlapped films depending on the dimensions actually utilized. The particular system employed adds great convenience to manual positioning of a cassette beneath a patient and insures that no area will be missed, which can readily happen with traveling cassette holders such as have been provided in the past.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A cart top X-ray frame of a size to act as a stretcher to move with and receive a human patient in horizontal position and for receiving rectangular cassettes which have a peripheral border and are for use in X-ray examination of human patients, said frame being elongated to provide long sides and ends and substantially rectangular in shape, said frame comprising a substantially flat radiolucent top wall member, a bottom wall member positioned in close proximity to the underside of said top wall member and substantially parallel thereto, a plurality of spaced guides located between said wall members along a first side of said frame, each guide having a surface for directing an edge of a cassette between said members in a line of direction at generally right angles to said first side and spacing said wall members, a plurality of spaced guides located between said wall members along a second side of said frame, each guide having a surface for directing an edge of a cassette between said members in a line of direction at generally right angles to said second side and spacing said wall members, the facing surfaces of said guides together with the wall members forming a mouth, portions of the mouths located in the first and second sides overlapping each other, whereby the cassettes when positioned into the mouths from the first and second sides will provide an overlap of their edges in plan, said border being effectively overlapped so that films made by separate exposures of the two cassettes so guided may be positioned in adjacency to exhibit an uninterrupted continuity of the human body.

2. A cart top X-ray frame as in claim 1 wherein at least one end wall is provided with guides for directing a cassette at right angles thereto.