Beds – Bedclothing – And means to facilitate changing thereof
Patent
1992-04-27
1993-12-07
Trettel, Michael F.
Beds
Bedclothing
And means to facilitate changing thereof
5456, 5953, 128 33, A61C 704
Patent
active
052673650
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to the art of hollow pressurizable mats or mattresses. In particular, the invention relates to the structure of such mattress and to a pressurized liquid supply system for alternately pressurizing and depressurizing the mat.
The art of pressurized mats has long been subject to intensive development. The basic idea of pressurizable mats is in that a pressurized medium is alternately supplied to a selected group of cells of the mat such that the body is supported at alternating points thus preventing or at least reducing the development of bed sores.
Despite intensive research and development and skillful marketing, the systems thus far developed do not appear to have found wide acceptance in the market even though the beneficial effect of the alternate support of the body is well known.
One of the reasons for this problem is the relative complexity of the known supporting systems. Virtually all of the systems proposed for use in this field operate as pneumatic arrangements. They require relatively high volumes of the pressurized medium to be displaced during the operation. They are usually relatively noisy to operate and thus are not suitable for medical institutions where the quiet environment is often an important aspect of the recovery.
Air inflatable mattresses and systems for operating same are disclosed in numerous prior art patents among which the following are of interest: Canadian Patents 547,744 (Rand); 879,575 (Stuart); 1,070,863 (Tringali et al.); Canadian Patent 1,077,173 (Hopkins); 1,147,873 (Jackson) and 1,224,888 (Takeuchi).
As mentioned above, they suffer from the drawback of relative complexity of the overall system, difficulties associated with the maintenance of quiet operation and, as far as the mattress itself is concerned with a generally linear local of support of the body at any instant point in time of operation of the device. The only possible arrangement which may slightly differ is the compartmented air mattress shown in Canadian Patent 879,575 in which the mattress is comprised of a number of compartments each of which may be inflated to a predetermined pressure. This arrangement, however, is not suitable for a continuously alternating pressure increase and decreases. The trend of inflatable, pressurized air-filled mats is further exemplified by numerous U.S. patents such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,193,149 (Welch); 4,622,706 (Takeuchi); 4,197,837 (Tringali et al.); 4,347,633 (Gammons et al.); 4,472,847 (Gammons et al.); 3,701,173 (Whitney); 4,068,334 (Randall); 4,391,009 (Schild et al.); 4,799,276 (Kadish); 4,722,105 (Douglas) and 4,777,679 (DeLooper).
The above prior art references show pneumatic systems in which a continuous, linear arrangement of the alternately inflated and deflated cells. The linear support of the body has a relatively low effect in avoiding the formation of bed sores.
Attempts are known to introduce a system forming a matrix of freely vertically displaceable supports more or less in a point-like fashion. One of such systems is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,799,276 to Kadish. This solution, however, presents an expensive, complex arrangement of pressurized air-supported pistons. Another system known from the above U.S. Pat. No. 4,722,105 to Douglas utilizes a plurality of contiguous inflatable cells and a blower cooperating with solenoid valves to automatically seal-off inflation air present in the cells. Again, this is a complex structural arrangement. Also, it suffers from the same drawbacks as all of the remaining pneumatic arrangements, namely the noisy operation.
It is an object of the present invention to advance the art of hollow pressurizable mattresses of the above type by providing, in a first aspect, a system which alternately pressurizes and depressurizes selected cells of the mattress, which is quiet in operation, relatively simple in structure and requires a minimum displacement of the fluid used in operating the mattress.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a hollow, pressurizable mattress which wou
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