Surgery – Body protecting or restraining devices for patients or infants – Antisnoring device
Reexamination Certificate
2002-08-15
2004-08-24
Brown, Michael A. (Department: 3764)
Surgery
Body protecting or restraining devices for patients or infants
Antisnoring device
C602S902000, C128S874000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06779526
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a gear for reducing adverse effects by sleep apnea syndrome. More particularly, the present invention relates to a gear which can prevent a patient from lapsing into an apneic state when the soft palate or the like closes the upper airway by maintaining the head of the patient in an inclined state while asleep.
Sleep apnea syndrome is a disorder having a symptom in which breathing stops for 10 seconds or more during sleep due to various causes. Many cases of the sleep apnea syndrome can be satisfactorily remedied by improving living habits. The apnea syndrome is provoked when the nose wings, the soft palate, the pendulous palate, the tongue root, the pharyngeal palate or the like closes the upper airway during sleep, and obstruction especially by the soft palate has often been reported. Obstruction of the upper airway during sleep is dissolved when each of the above-described organs is arranged at a position where it does not close the upper airway.
The easiest cure of the upper airway obstruction is to arrange the head at an optimum position while asleep. Furthermore, the habitual stertor which is often observed among middle-aged and elderly males is considered as an obstructive sleep apnea syndrome-to-be, and preventing the habitual stertor generally leads to suppression of occurrence of this disease.
Conventionally, as this type of gear, there has been known a pillow for recumbency disclosed in Japanese Registered Utility Model No. 3009844. This pillow for recumbency allows mainly a patient of the sleep apnea syndrome to sleep in a recumbent position so that obstruction of the rhinopharyngeal part due to downward displacement of the tongue root or the like can be avoided.
In this pillow for recumbency, a tabular plate is provided at the bottom of a pillow pouch, and three cores (a first core, a second core and a third core) having different shapes are arranged on the plate. The first, second and third core are formed in the substantially elliptic, cylindrical shapes by filling a core material in the pouch in such a manner that these cores have different heights.
According to this utility model, a comfortable sleep can be obtained while maintaining the recumbent posture without effort by placing the head on this pillow for recumbency during sleep. Maintaining this recumbent posture prevents the rhinopharyngeal part from being obstructed even if the tongue root is displaced downward, thereby preventing lapsing into the apneic state.
However, in the prior art pillow for recumbency, each core is formed of a material having the hardness which rarely loses shape, and the height of each core is formed so as to be fixed to a predetermined height. Therefore, the hardness or height cannot be freely adjusted in accordance with preferences of each user. Thus, when the hardness or height of the pillow for recumbency is unsuitable, it is very difficult to sleep while holding the recumbent posture as mentioned above, and lapsing into the apneic state cannot be sufficiently prevented.
The present invention is based on the above-described problems existing in the prior art. It is the objective of the present invention to provide a gear which can readily reduce the apneic states during sleep.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To achieve this objective, according to the present invention, there is provided a gear for preventing a user from lapsing into an apneic state by maintaining the body of the user in an inclined posture during sleep. This gear includes a clothing body worn by a user and a pad. The clothing body includes a back body and a front body. The pad is attached to the back body of the clothing body and extends in the longitudinal direction. This pad includes a plurality of segments arranged along the longitudinal direction. Capacities of the segments are different from each other, and each segment expands in accordance with its capacity by a fluid supplied to each segment.
Therefore, a user wearing the gear can maintain his or her body inclined for a long period of time during sleep, thereby preventing the user from lapsing into an apneic state while asleep.
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Brown Michael A.
Buyan Robert D.
Stout, Uxa Buyan & Mullins, LLP
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