Importance

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Abstract

Apparatus for detecting the presence of electrically conductive fluids, including urine and other body fluids such as exudate from wounds, includes spaced-apart electrodes (44, 46, 96, 98) covered by absorbent material (58, 106, 108, 126, 128), together with a housing (30, 86, 154) containing a signaling device (32, 152, 172, 175) which produces a palpable vibration, a sound, a light, or a radio signal when fluid in the absorbent material provides a conductive path between the electrodes. Spring contacts (50, 138, 146) on the housing provide reliable connections with the electrodes and also serve to attach the housing of the signaling device (32) to structure (12, 78) supporting the absorbent material, and may also be used to attach the absorbent material to the housing in embodiments where the housing is otherwise supported. Encoded signals from many such sensors (160, 170) can be identifiably related to and recorded so as to be machine-retrievable together with other patient data and analyzed statistically by a computer (178, 183).

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First Claim