A - Human Necessities – 61 – N
Patent
A - Human Necessities
61
N
A61N 5/06 (2006.01)
Patent
CA 2291958
In apparatuses and methods for the medical treatment of hyperbilirubinemia, it is known to use phototherapy lamps in a manner that exposes the patient to an essentially steady stream of light. Even the "intermittent" variety of known phototherapy methods are characterized by steady exposure to light whereby the light remains continuously on during their relatively long "lights- on" segments of treatment, such a continuously-on segment lasting on the order of many minutes to several hours. In this invention, however, light is delivered to the patient instead in burst pulses greatly shortened in duration, down to tiny fractions of a second, to approach the mere nanoseconds-long time period actually required to cause the molecular-level therapeutic photoisomerization of bilirubin. Such flashes of light are then repeated only often enough to accommodate or match the actual bilirubin migratory rates of the particular tissue being targeted. The short-duration flashes spaced in time as far apart as possible in sequential cycling can thus reduce to a minimum total light irradiance dose, therefore helping to minimize the potential for phototoxic side effects. This in turn allows the use of greatly increased intensity of light for deeper penetration into patients' target tissue to allow a greater number of bilirubin molecules to simultaneously undergo molecular photoisomerization, all to the therapeutically advantageous effect of more rapid lowering of serum bilirubin levels. Even with such use of greatly-increased intensity of light, actual total irradiance dose to the patient can in fact still remain lower than with previously known phototherapy approaches since the invention so unprecedently eliminates exposure during strategic, extensive 'blackout' periods which the Applicant has discovered as being unnecessary for coverage by light exposure given the actual relationship of required time periods of bilirubin molecular geometric structure alteration by photoisomerization and bilirubin migration in target tissue. The light source used can be of virtually any safe type that includes in its emission sufficient energy levels in the appropriate wavelength range, while specifically a xenon flash tube embodiment would allow for particularly efficient electronic flashing of the light and also possesses the property of yielding a therapeutically optimal output emphasis around the blue wavelengths portion (400 to 500 nanometers) of the visible spectrum. In another embodiment based more on traditional phototherapy light sources, the short- duration flashes can be produced by various mechanical shutter or electrical means. Light delivery to relevant tissue in the patient can be accomplished by any of various external, internal, or surgical means.
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