Surgery: splint – brace – or bandage – Orthopedic bandage – Splint or brace
Patent
1998-01-06
1999-12-28
Donnelly, Jerome W.
Surgery: splint, brace, or bandage
Orthopedic bandage
Splint or brace
602 8, 602 9, A61F 500
Patent
active
06007504&
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to mouldable products.
Mouldable materials based on using metastable hydrated salts have been described previously (EP 485,835 and EP 521,333) for making plaster bandages for supporting broken limbs and the like. These metastable hydrated salts allow a bandage to be formed which is mouldable while the salt is liquid, and becomes rigid when the salt solidifies. Although there has been some interest in these salts, the ability to use the solid salt within other useful products is limited by the poor structural properties of the crystallite. Simple hand pressure and manipulation is enough to damage the shape of the solid form. Failure is by crystal fracture and by crystal/crystal separation and movement.
It is an object of the present invention to mitigate this disadvantage and to provide a mouldable product comprising a metastable compound, which is of enhanced structural strength in its solid state.
The present invention provides a mouldable product which is conformable in that it can be selectively converted from a mouldable state to a reinforced solid state and which in its mouldable state can be shaped or conformed to any desired configuration, said product comprising a sealed container made of permanently flexible material and a fill composition within said container, said composition comprising a reinforcing open micro-porous material which is liquid absorbing and a metastable compound dispersed through said micro-porous material.
The micro-porous material is liquid-absorbing, and provides mechanical reinforcement for the metastable compound when in its solid state which results in structural integrity of the rigid moulded or conformed product over a comparatively long period of time (e.g. 6 weeks). The micro-porous material may be a fibrous material, a hydrogel material or alternatively a particulate material. The micro-porous material is sufficiently fine to assist the metastable compound in a liquid/gel like (mouldable) state to form a micro-connected matrix structure and the liquid-absorbing nature of the material enables the crystals of the metastable compound when in a solid (rigid) state to bind to the micro-porous material.
Preferably, the mouldable product can be converted from a mouldable state to a reinforced state in a reversible manner i.e. it is reconformable.
A phase transformation in the product (i.e. mouldable to rigid) occurs during the conversion from the mouldable state to the reinforced solid state. This transformation is effected by a trigger mechanism. This mechanism once triggered results in a rapid conversion of the product from a mouldable state to the solid state.
This trigger mechanism may simply be a consequence of manipulating the product around an article of choice, such as a broken limb. The actual act of moulding the product triggers the mechanism and the product transforms from a mouldable product to a rigid solid product. Alternatively, additional devices may effect the change in state. Such additional devices may include devices for heating or cooling the product. The heating or cooling of the product thus acts as a trigger. Applying an electrical current as a trigger mechanism, through the product, is another alternative. A flexible metal strip with micro slits cut into the surface of the strip may be used to provide the trigger. Flexing of the strip provides the trigger for initiating phase transformation of the product. It is thought that growth of the crack tip of the micro slit upon flexing triggers the phase transformation.
It is the metastable compound which is transformed from a liquid to a solid state which results in the product being converted from a mouldable product to a rigid solid product. The metastable compound may be convertible between its solid and liquid states by trigger mechanisms (commonly termed nucleating processes) which may be similar to those previously described in the art (e.g. Anonymous, Vol. I No. 1. 1986, Hashimoto, T. and Kotoni, Y. "A nucleating device with Special Electrodes for some Supercooled Hydrates". J
REFERENCES:
patent: 4077390 (1978-03-01), Stanley et al.
Bailey Stuart Graham
McDonach Alaster
Donnelly Jerome W.
Hart Kelvin
University of Strathclyde
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