Surgery – Truss – Pad
Patent
1985-09-30
1988-02-02
McNeill, Gregory E.
Surgery
Truss
Pad
H61F 1300
Patent
active
047223324
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to an inflatable garment for use in intermittent compression therapy and more particularly to a garment having a portion which substantially encases a patient's foot to be treated. Such a garment may also further include a leg portion which encases substantially the whole leg i.e. both calf and thigh; the lower leg i.e calf; or which further includes only an ankle portion. However, the present invention is concerned with improvements to the foot portion of such a garment and reference herein to leg garment is to be understood as including any of the garment forms referred to above.
BACKGROUND ART
Known inflatable leg garments are formed from a double skinned fabric blank which comprises integral mirror image leg-shaped parts. The blank is folded in half so that the leg shaped parts are brought into superposed relationship. Thereafter, a zip fastener is inserted in order to provide an openable front seam and the foot portions of the leg-shaped parts are welded and stitched together thereby forming a generally leg-shaped inflatable enclosure having a zip seam `s` and a welded seam `w` as shown in FIG. 7.
In use, the garment is fitted about a patient's limb to be treated and cyclically is inflated and deflated to apply intermittent compression to the patient's limb. Whilst the known garment construction is generally satisfactory, the pressure applied by the foot portion during inflation of the garment can cause considerable pain to the patient because of the constricting shape which the foot portion of the garment is caused to adopt during inflation.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
The present invention seeks to improve the configuration of the garment foot portion so as to provide an equivalent or improved intermittent compression therapy as compared with that given by known garment constructions whilst giving better comfort to the user and alleviating the pain.
To this end, the invention provides an inflatable garment for use in intermittent compression thereapy, which garment includes a foot portion provided by a plurality of inflatable sacs characterised in that the inflatable sacs are arranged such that, when inflated, pressure is applied thereby inwardly of the foot portion predominantly from above and from below a notional substantially horizontal plane passing centrally through the foot portion of the garment.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a plan view of a preferred fabric blank comprising two superposed sheets of material secured together to form an inflatable garment;
FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a garment in inflated condition as seen from the underside of the foot portion and formed from the fabric blank shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a plan view of another fabric blank comprising two superposed sheets of material secured together to form an inflatable garment;
FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a garment in inflated condition as seen from the underside of the foot and formed from the fabric blank shown in FIG. 3;
FIG. 5 is a plan view of yet another fabric blank comprising two superposed sheets of material secured together to form an inflatable garment; and
FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a garment in inflated condition as seen from the underside of the foot portion and formed from the fabric blank shown in FIG. 4.
FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a known garment in inflated condition as seen from the underside of the foot portion.
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Referring first to FIGS. 1 and 2,
there is shown a leg garment blank 10 for forming an inflatable garment 12. The blank is formed from two superposed sheets 14,16 of material which will form outer and inner `skins` of the garments, each comprising a woven Nylon (registered trade mark) substrate to one face of which a polyeurathane coating is applied. The sheets are high frequency welded together adjacent their peripheries with their coated surfaces
REFERENCES:
patent: 2943859 (1960-07-01), Kuski et al.
patent: 3153413 (1964-10-01), Gottfried
patent: 3186404 (1965-06-01), Gardner
patent: 3245405 (1966-04-01), Gardner
patent: 4502301 (1985-03-01), Swallow
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