An air cushioning surface with actively cooled embedded elements
This invention describes an advanced air cushion designed to prevent pressure ulcers. It features embedded cooling elements that selectively cool only the body areas most deeply immersed in the cushion. This targeted cooling, combined with excellent pressure redistribution, protects fragile skin without causing systemic coldness.
Description
An air cushioning surface prevents pressure ulcers by actively cooling high-risk tissue areas. It integrates electrically powered thermoelectric coolers (TECs) deep within a multi-cell air cushion. These cooled elements are activated based on the depth of tissue immersion into the cushion, ensuring that cooling is applied selectively to the most deeply penetrated body parts, which correspond to areas at greatest risk for ulcer formation. This localized cooling mechanism avoids systemic hypothermia while preserving the cushion's primary function of pressure redistribution.Applications
1. Medical & Clinical Support Surfaces: This invention provides advanced pressure ulcer prevention for patients in hospitals, operating rooms, and other clinical settings who are often immobile for extended periods.2. Rehabilitation & Mobility Seating: The technology offers a specialized solution for wheelchair users and individuals with chronic mobility impairments, preventing pressure ulcers during prolonged sitting by combining pressure redistribution with targeted cooling.
3. Long-Term Care & Home Healthcare Products: This invention serves to protect vulnerable individuals in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and home care environments from pressure ulcers by offering a superior, actively cooled cushioning surface.
Advantages
1. Enhanced Pressure Ulcer Prevention: Unlike existing pressure-reducing cushions (e.g., standard foam, gel, or multi-cell air cushions like ROHO), this invention integrates active, localized cooling, which is scientifically proven to reduce tissue susceptibility to ulceration by lowering metabolic oxygen consumption in ischemic areas.2. Targeted Cooling for High-Risk Areas: The invention selectively cools only the body parts that penetrate deeply into the cushion (high-immersion zones), which are the areas at greatest risk for pressure ulcers, a feature not found in any existing commercial cushioning surfaces.
3. Prevention of Systemic Hypothermia: By precisely targeting cooling to high-immersion zones using multiple thermoelectric coolers (TECs), the invention avoids the unwanted systemic cooling effects that have hindered the commercialization of active cooling in other cushioning products.
4. Simplified and Robust Cooling Activation: Unlike the pressure-responsive cooling taught by Augustine et al. (US Patent #6,497,720), this invention activates cooling based on the depth of tissue immersion, which the inventors found to be a less complex and potentially more reliable implementation.
5. Preservation of Pressure Redistribution Properties: The design embeds soft, heat-conductive cooled elements deep within the multi-cell air cushion, ensuring that the active cooling mechanism does not compromise the superior pressure redistribution capabilities inherent to multi-cell air cushions (like the ROHO cushion).