Curved Wall DVT Garment Chambers for Seamless Pressure
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing deep vein thrombosis (DVT) prophylaxis garments with multiple inflatable chambers suffer from dead areas due to non-overlapping chambers, user anxiety from perceived leaks, and complex management of chamber volumes and bleed tubes, which affect the efficacy of pressure application and release phases.
Innovation Solution
A tubular garment with side-by-side inflatable chambers separated by curved walls, allowing longitudinal overlap and interconnected by chokes of predetermined dimensions, ensuring continuous pressure distribution and reduced anxiety through seamless inflation and deflation without separate exhaust valves.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If chambers are arranged side by side with straight separation walls, then the garment structure is simple, but dead areas are created where pressure treatment is ineffective
Solution Approach 1:
The separation walls between adjacent inflatable chambers are curved rather than straight, causing the chambers to overlap in the longitudinal direction when the garment is applied to the patient's body. This curvature eliminates dead areas where pressure treatment would be ineffective while maintaining structural simplicity.
2Measurement precision
If separate exhaust valves are provided for each chamber, then pressure control in each chamber is precise, but user anxiety increases due to perceived leaks
Solution Approach 1:
A single exhaust valve is provided for the entire garment rather than separate valves for each chamber. This unified approach maintains precise pressure control across all chambers while eliminating the visual appearance of multiple leak points that cause user anxiety.
Solution Approach 2:
The single exhaust valve serves all inflatable chambers simultaneously, performing the pressure release function for the entire garment through one component rather than requiring individual valves for each chamber.
3Measurement precision
If multiple variables such as chamber volume, bleed tube dimensions, and grommet dimensions are managed, then pressure control is accurate, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The curved separation walls inherently create the desired chamber overlap and pressure distribution characteristics, eliminating the need to separately manage multiple geometric parameters such as chamber volumes, bleed tube dimensions, and grommet sizes that would otherwise be required to achieve the same effect.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution provides enhanced pressure distribution, increased comfort, and improved clinical effectiveness by maintaining pressure gradients and reducing manufacturing complexities, resulting in a more efficient and sustained compressive therapy with reduced user anxiety.
Implementation Method 1
the treatment temporarily occludes the patient's vessels by compressing the veins, and then opens these by release of the compressive pressure
Implementation Method 2
interconnected by chokes of predetermined dimensions, ensuring continuous pressure distribution
Data Source
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AI summary
A pressure cuff or garment (10) for prophylactic treatment of deep vein thrombosis includes a series of three chambers (24-28) arranged in series and coupled fluidically to one another by bleed tubes or chokes (32, 34). The chambers (24-28) are of curved shape so as to overlap one another. The cuff or garment (24-28) provides more effective pulsating pressure treatment than prior art structures.