Surgery: splint – brace – or bandage – Orthopedic bandage – Skeletal traction applicator
Reexamination Certificate
2000-10-17
2004-09-14
Lucchesi, Nicholas D. (Department: 3764)
Surgery: splint, brace, or bandage
Orthopedic bandage
Skeletal traction applicator
C482S142000, C482S143000, C482S095000, C482S907000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06790194
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to health equipment for supporting the trunk of the human body and dragging his or her lumbar with the weight of the lower part of the body.
BACKGROUND ART
In general, a bed for lumbago treatment comprising a bed for letting the patient lie, a fixing belt for fixing the patient on the bed, ankle belts for attaching around the ankles of the patient, and a weight being hanged from the ankle belts is known. In a bed for lumbago treatment of this type, the crooked spinal column is straightened while dragging the lower part of the back with a weight to treat lumbago.
However, in a bed of this type, since the lower part of the back is dragged with the patient lain, the movement of the patient under treatment is limited, and the patient needs an assist from somebody else to attach the belt, thereby requiring significant labor costs. Although the dragging weight is adjusted based on the experience of the doctor or the physical therapist, it could be too heavy or too light, and thus it is troublesome to adjust. In addition, it has been necessary to allocate a significant space for installing the bed.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide health equipment that can overcome all the problems in the related art described above, in other words, to provide epoch-making health equipment that can stably secure the trunk of the human body in the seated posture and drag the lumbar by the weight of the lower part of the body.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides health equipment for supporting the trunk of the user (patient) and dragging the lumbar with the weight of the lower part of his/her body, comprising an equipment body, a freely deformable trunk supporting means mounted to the equipment body for supporting the trunk of the user by holding it from both sides of the body, and a seat portion on which the user sits.
The equipment body is a member that constitute a base on which the trunk supporting means is mounted. The trunk supporting means is characterized in being freely deformable. The seat portion may be formed of, for example, a chair separate from the equipment body. The seat portion may be integrated with the equipment body and formed in a chair having a seat back as a whole.
In the apparatus for lumbago treatment of the present invention, lumbago treatment may be easily executed by the following procedure. The user sits on the seat portion and takes a seated posture, and then places the trunk supporting means around his/her trunk while keeping the seated posture. At this time, it is preferable that the height of the seating portion is adjusted so that the trunk of the patient is at almost the same level as the trunk supporting means. Since the trunk supporting means is freely deformable, it can tight fit and hold the trunk of the patient securely.
Then, the sitting portion is lowered or removed from the position where the user is sitting to allow the hip of the user to be suspended in the air, so that the lumbar is dragged by the weight of the lower part of the body to treat the lumbago. In this situation, since the trunk of the body is supported by the trunk supporting means, a dragging force is not applied to the bones other than the lumbar (for example the spin column), whereby only the lumbar area is dragged intensively, and effective lumbago treatment can be expected.
In order to adjust the height of the seating portion as described above, a mechanism to move the seating portion upward and downward must be provided. It is also possible to change the position of the user from the seated position to the position where the hip is suspended in the air by employing the structure wherein the seat portion is fixed and the trunk supporting portion is movable in the vertical direction. In other words, it is essential only that the trunk supporting means and the seat portion be relative movable in the vertical direction.
It is also possible to change the position of the user from the seated position to the position where the hip is suspended in the air by employing the structure in which the seat portion can be removed from the position where the user is sitting.
In the case where the trunk supporting means and the seat portion are constructed to be relatively movable in the vertical direction, a load applied to the lumbar can be adjusted as desired by adjusting the distance of movement. In other words, no load is applied to the user's lumbar when he or she is sitting on the seat portion, and a load applied to his or her lumbar increases as the seat portion is lowered with respect to the hip of the user, and the load applied to his or her lumbar becomes a maximum when the hip of the user comes out of contact with the seat portion completely.
In order to make the load applied to the lumbar adjustable based on the objective data, weight detecting means for detecting the weight of the user applied to the seat portion may be provided. The load increases in inverse proportion to the weight of the user which is applied to the seat portion. Therefore, the load applied to the lumbar may be adjusted based on the weight data detected by the weight detecting means.
In the present invention of such an arrangement, the trunk supporting means may include a trunk supporting arm comprising a plurality of supporting members rotatably linked with respect to each other. In this arrangement, the trunk supporting means becomes freely deformable (in this structure, freely bendable), thereby creating the state where it fits around the trunk of the human and supports the same securely.
The trunk supporting arm is preferably formed so that the height is decreased in stages from the supporting member that supports the back of the human body to the supporting member that supports the belly of the human body. Therefore, the pressure applied onto the belly may be decreased.
The trunk supporting means may be constructed in such a manner that a pliant human body protecting member is mounted on the inner side of the trunk supporting arm, and a trunk supporting arm and the human body protecting member are covered by a covering member, and a non-slip member that is formed of a material being of a high contact resistance is attached on the inner surface of the covering member. In this arrangement, the trunk of the user may be softly enfolded by the human body protecting member, whereby the comfortable lumbago treatment may be carried out. In addition, the non-slip member may prevent the human body from being slipped with respect to the trunk supporting means, so that the proper state of supporting the trunk may be maintained.
In this arrangement, the human protecting member is preferably thicker at least in the area that supports the belly of the human body than that of other area in order to reduce the pressure applied to the belly of the human body.
By providing heating means for heating the trunk of the user in the trunk supporting means, the thermal treatment for the lower part of the back as well as dragging treatment of the lumbar may be carried out simultaneously, whereby further preferable effectiveness of treatment may be expected. By providing low frequency generating means that transmits low frequency to the trunk of the user in the trunk supporting means, low frequency treatment for the lower part of the back as well as dragging treatment of the lumbar may be carried out simultaneously.
In addition to the components described above, health equipment of the present invention may include leg hanging means that holds the legs of the user in hanged state. The leg hanging means comprises, for example, a support, a string body hanged from the supporting body via a pulley, a leg holder mounted to the lower end of the string body for holding the legs of the user, wherein the height of the leg holder may be adjusted by manipulating the string body.
The leg hanging means is used for raising the knees or the ankles of the user upward. By raising the knees or ankles upward with the trunk of the human supported by the trunk su
Katane Fumio
Sakitsu Hideaki
Lucchesi Nicholas D.
Pham Huong Q.
Protec House Co., Ltd.
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