Smooth tipped endotracheal tube

Claim 1

In a medical endrotracheal tube comprising: a preformed theremoplastic balloon with a permanently enlarged central portion integrally connected by front and rear collars that respectively define front and rear ends of the balloon; and a dual-lumen theremoplastic tube within and secured to each of the balloon collars, said central portion being spaced from said tube, the tube having a main lumen, an inflation lumen, and a port that connects the inflation lumen with the interior of the enlarged central portion of the balloon; means for providing for safe insertion of the tube into a patient''s tracheal passage and deterring inadvertent trauma to the patient comprising said tube having a front end that terminates at the front end of the front collar, an opening having a smooth annular relieved edge lip portion, the combined tube and overlying collars being homogeneously fused and forming a smooth continuous uninterrupted slide zone surface having a smooth seamless slide zone extending from the annular lip at the open forward end of the tube to the central portion of the balloon so that the tube can smoothly slide into the tracheal passage in a patient, said fused forward ends of the collar and tube comprising a bonded homogeneous mass of thermoplastic material for resisting delamination of the collar and the dual lumen tube, the said enlarged central portion of the thermoplastic balloon and the dual lumen tube, in the normal uninflated condition, forming an annular space therebetween, said inflation lumen being fused shut at a forward end portion, forwardly of the inflation lumen''s communication with the enlarged central portion of the balloon.