Surgery: kinesitherapy – Kinesitherapy – Device with applicator having specific movement
Patent
1992-05-29
1997-02-18
Hafer, Robert A.
Surgery: kinesitherapy
Kinesitherapy
Device with applicator having specific movement
601151, 602 13, A61F 500, A61H 700
Patent
active
056036906
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to an inflatable support means and, in particular but not exclusively, to an inflatable tissue support for prevention and/or repair of tissue pressure damage.
It is generally known that people who remain in static positions for long periods (e.g. the seriously injured, the brittle boned, unconscious patients, the elderly and those with certain disabilities) are particularly susceptible to pressure injuries such as decubitus ulcers or bed sores. These factors are exacerbated by the need to lie on hard surfaces such as theatre tables or firm plastic-covered mattresses.
Considerable resources in terms of nursing and extended hospitalisation are spent on the treatment of patients of all ages and conditions who develop pressure sores. According to one estimate over .English Pound.2 billion is spent annually on the prevention and treatment of pressure sores. To date, most preventive measures have been expensive either in terms of increased nursing care, e.g. regular repositioning or in terms of equipment. Such equipment includes specialist units such as a net suspension bed or hammock, water beds or mattresses, air beds or cushions (both conventional and ripple-type). All this equipment is complex and expensive and the expense is difficult to justify except for those patients who have developed acute conditions. Additionally, this equipment is only partially effective.
There are many types of airbeds or cushions, and these typically are porous adjacent the patient so that air escapes from the air bed or cushion to ventilate the patient and prevent sweating. This however means that the airbed or cushion must be continually supplied with air from a blower to prevent it deflating. This is extravagant in terms of storage space, equipment cost and running costs. Another form of support consists of an array of interconnected egg-shaped inflatable cells designed to keep the patient's body immersed in the cushion. The design is costly to implement, does not allow the patient's skin to breath and is believed still to generate local pressure points.
In attempting to provide a simple and effective support for preventing a treating pressure sores which may be implemented at relatively low cost, we have unexpectedly found that it is possible to provide an inflatable support made of a material which transmits water vapour in sufficient amounts to allow a patient's skin to breathe whilst being substantially impermeable to air so that the support can stay inflated for long periods without requiring replenishment. The reason for this remarkable effect are not yet fully understood, but it is believed that it may arise because when the material is inflated and thus subjected to stress, the normal vapour permeability is inhibited thus preventing escape of the inflation medium. But the continual voluntary and involuntary movement of the user stresses and relaxes the material and thus momentarily causes local areas of the material to allow vapour to permeate.
Accordingly in one aspect this invention provides an inflatable support means formed of a breathable or vapour permeable material capable of sustaining an inflated state.
Thus, in use, the support provides the benefits of pressure distribution whilst allowing breathing of water vapour. The support may stay inflated for long periods so that it is not necessary to provide a continual source of inflation medium under pressure.
Advantageously, said material has a water vapour transmission rate in the range of from 50 to 400 g/m.sup.2.d, preferably in the range of from 100-300 and ideally about 200 g/m.sup.2.d.
The material is preferably a polyurethane film such as, e.g. a thermoplastic polyester urethane elastomer film.
The thickness of the material preferably lies in the range of from 25 .mu.m to 100 .mu.m and ideally in the range of from 50 .mu.m to 80 .mu.m. This provides sufficient strength whilst preserving vapour permeability.
The material is preferably made by coextrusion with a suitable carrier film. The material is preferably bonded together e.g. by h
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Hafer Robert A.
Hanlon Brian E.
South Glamorgan Health Authority
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