US2576027A - Surgical cast - Google Patents

Description

Patented Nov. 20, 1951 EFICE SURGICAL CAST John E. Means, Seattle, Wash.

N 0 Drawing. Application July 16, 1946, Serial No. 684,001

1 Claim.

This invention relates to improvements in means and methods for preparing casts for the support of anatomical segments, particularly casts for supporting broken bones in the human body or in the body of an animal.

Heretofore it has been a slow and difficult procedure to place a rigid cast on the body of a living person or animal to support and align a broken bone while it is knitting. This problem is especially difiicult with domestic animals and in many instances valuable animals have been killed because it was considered impossible or impractical to try to place a cast on a broken leg to assist nature in knitting the fracture.

Furthermore such surgical casts have been uncomfortable to the wearer because they have been big and heavy and have not always fitted correctly, often causing serious irritation. Another difficulty has been that casts of the usual type are more or less air tight, thus excluding air from the part of the body so encased to the detriment thereof and making inspection difficult.

Therefore it is an object of the present invention to provide the means and method of making a surgical cast on a living body that overcomes, to a large extent, the shortcomings and difiiculties above set forth. The improved cast or support can easily and quickly be placed on the body where desired, it will fit well, it is practice of cutting a window in the cast for inspection and so the doctor or nurse can smell the encased member to determine conditions within.

In order to accomplish these improved results, cloth such as surgical gauze or the like, is impregnated with a chemical that has the power to act as a catalyst with reference to a solution, such as a solution of a synthetic resin, to cause polymerization within said solution when applied to the gauze, thus to form a rigid solid conforming substantially to the size and shape of the gauze.

Gauze so prepared and impregnated can be wrapped or otherwise placed about an anatomical segment in a living body, human or animal, while the gauze is soft pliable. in this condition the gauze is easy and light to handle and its placement on the anatomical segment can be accomplished quickly with a minimum of effort by the attendant and a minimum of discomfort to the patient.

Immediately after the treated gauze: is thus placed about the part of the body to be sup ported, the solution is painted, with a suitable brush, onto the gauze, whereupon polymerization begins, and shortly a thin, stiff, strong and rigid solid body is formed corresponding to the position and shape of the gauze around the anatomical part to be supported.

While many different chemicals can be used to impregnate the gauze according to this inventive concept, some of the preferred chemicals are: a non-aqueous solution of a weak organic acid such as citric acid or oxalic acid: or ammonium salts of stronger acids, for instance, ammonium sulphate or ammonium chloride: or the salt of a very weak base and a strong acid such as urea nitrate or hydroxylamine hydrochloride.

A preferred solution for treating and impregnating the gauze to deposit thereon a catalyzing agent that will cause polymerization in a solution of synthetic resin such as a urea-formal dehyde aqueous syrup follows:

Urea nitrate 3.0 to 4.0 grams Urea 12 grams Methyl cellulose 6 grams Alcohol (denatured ethyl) 300 cc.

This mixture is used at a temperature just below its boiling point and the gauze is drawn through it and immediately dried and placed within water-proof coverings where it will keep indefinitely as an article of commerce.

After the gauze so treated and impregnated is in place to form a cast about a bodily segment, the solution of resin or the like, is painted thereon and the time required for solidification of the resin will depend partly on the strength of the acid in the chemical on the gauze. Normally setting of the cast will begin in a few minutes and it will become quite stiff within less than half an hour. Thus is formed a cast for the support of a broken bone or the like, in a living body, that is light in weight and stronger than plaster. It is more comfortable to the patient and fits the part well. It will have many minute ventilating pores because the gauze is woven with an open mesh. It is water proof.

The solution of synthetic resin employed may be any of the articles of commerce now on the market. The formulas of these resin solutions, per se, are not a part of this invention. The

" invention resides in the article of manufacture 7 3 that is the treated and impregnated gauze and the methods of procedure herein set forth.

I claim:

The method of making a cast for the support of an anatomical segment of a living body, that comprises impregnating a bandage with a chemical that has the property of a potential catalyizing agent with reference to a solution of resin, wrapping the anatomical segment with said bandage, and then applying a solution of resin to the bandage in place on the segment whereby said resin solution is polymerized to form a 4 rigid solid substantially conforming to the size, shape and position of the bandage.

JOHN E. MEANS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

,UNITED STATES PATENTS.