Lower Body Garment for Targeted Limb Warming
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing medical warming systems, such as inflatable thermal blankets, often increase the core-to-peripheral temperature gradient, leading to discomfort and restricted mobility, as they fail to distinguish between warming the thorax and limbs effectively, thereby causing core temperature elevation and heat loss redistribution hypothermia during medical procedures.
Innovation Solution
A lower body garment system with a blower and hose that supplies heated forced air, specifically designed to maintain and control limb temperatures, using bio-degradable materials and heat reflective coatings to reduce heat loss, while allowing patient mobility and adjusting air flow for optimal comfort and heat retention.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If inflatable thermal blankets are used to warm the patient's body, then the patient's body temperature is increased, but the core-to-peripheral temperature gradient increases causing discomfort and restricted mobility
Solution Approach 1:
The garment is divided into multiple independent chambers (thorax chamber and at least one limb chamber) that can be separately inflated and controlled. This segmentation allows independent temperature control of different body regions, enabling warming of peripheral limbs without excessive core temperature increase, thus maintaining patient mobility while preventing redistribution hypothermia.
Solution Approach 2:
Different chambers of the garment are designed with different inflation characteristics and positioning to provide localized thermal therapy. The thorax chamber and limb chambers can be inflated to different pressures and temperatures according to specific clinical needs, allowing precise control over where heat is applied, thereby warming peripheral compartments without compromising overall patient comfort and mobility.
2Temperature
If forced air heated blankets are used to warm the patient, then peripheral compartments are warmed, but core temperature increases leading to heat loss redistribution
Solution Approach 1:
The garment separates the thorax and limb regions into distinct chambers with independent control systems. This allows targeted warming of peripheral limb chambers without forcing heat into the core thorax chamber, preventing the redistribution of heat from peripheral to core compartments that occurs with traditional forced air blankets, thereby reducing energy loss through unwanted heat transfer.
Solution Approach 2:
The garment acts as an intermediary thermal barrier between the external heat source and the patient's body. By positioning the garment over specific body regions and controlling chamber inflation, it mediates heat transfer to achieve selective peripheral warming while preventing direct heating of the core, thus avoiding the heat redistribution phenomenon.
3Loss of energy
If the garment encloses the entire lower body to retain heat, then heat retention is improved, but patient mobility and access are restricted
Solution Approach 1:
The garment incorporates releasable seams that divide the enclosure into separable sections. These seams allow the garment to be opened or adjusted in specific areas without compromising the overall thermal enclosure, enabling healthcare providers to access the patient's legs or perform procedures while maintaining heat retention in other enclosed regions, thus balancing heat retention with patient accessibility.
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 system effectively reduces the core-to-peripheral temperature gradient, maintains heat content in peripheral compartments, and prevents redistribution hypothermia by providing targeted warming of the legs and arms without increasing core temperature, ensuring patient comfort and mobility during and after medical procedures.
Implementation Method 1
A lower body garment system with a blower and hose that supplies heated forced air
Implementation Method 2
using bio-degradable materials and heat reflective coatings to reduce heat loss
Implementation Method 3
The leg portions of the inner section include a material for distributing the air within the pants. In one embodiment, the distributing material is air permeable
Data Source
AI summary
A thermal therapy garment that covers at least the lower extremities of a patient. The garment has an air impermeable outer layer and an air permeable inner layer. An inflatable air chamber is defined between the inner and outer layers. An inlet port connects to the chamber to allow inflation with conditioned air, which is exhausted through the inner layer over a selected region of the patient's lower body. A gown has a length sufficient to overlap a waist portion of the garment, The gown has an opening that coincides with the inlet port, thereby allowing a hose to pass through the gown and connect to the inlet port. In one embodiment, the gown has sleeves and/or a posterior portion that are heat reflective whereby the extremities are warmed to minimize the core to peripheral temperature gradient.