GB2145323A - Inflatable compression garments - Google Patents

Abstract

A compression garment 1 for providing intermittent compression to a limb comprises an inner skin 3 and an outer skin 2 defining a closed sealed wall cavity 4. A gas inlet 5 allows compression fluid in to the cavity 4 to compress a limb received in the garment. A further inlet 6 is arranged to pass through the skins to provide ventilation to the interior of the garment. In this way, discomfort attributable to lack of ventilation of the skin surface of the limb in the garment is overcome. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Inflatable compression garments The present invention relates to intermittent compression garments such as are used in medicine for a number of purposes. Intermittent compression garments used in medicine generally comprise a double wall forming a sealed wall cav ity surrounding an opening into which a part of a patients body may fit. The garment may be closed at one end e.g. a glove or boot. Alternatively, the garment may be open at two opposed ends, e.g. a sleeve either for the arm or for the leg or else open toed boot or open fingered glove.

The garment is inflatable by the introduction of fluid under pressure, normally gas, into the sealed cavity. Normally, the pressurising means is adapted to provide intermittent pressure in the garment.

Such inflatable compression garments are normally used to promote blood flow in the venous and lymphatic systems and to displace fluid from oedema into the veins.

We have observed however that the close containment of part of a patients body in such a garment can cause some discomfort attributable to lack of ventilation of the skin surface.

According to the present invention there is provided an inflatable compression garment adapted to enclose or encircle a part of a patients body and upon inflation to apply compression thereto, comprising a first inlet for inflating fluid, and having a second inlet for the introduction of ventilation gas to the interior of the garment.

Preferably the garment has a closed end and an open end, the second inlet preferably opening into the interior of the garment at the closed end thereof. Alternatively, with the garment having two open ends, the second inlet preferably opens into the interior of the garments substantially midway between the open ends.

Conveniently, a garment having two open ends has an inner cylindrically shaped skin concentrically aligned with an outer cylindrically shaped skin and respective skin ends are lap jointed together to form a support band. Alternatively, with a garment having a closed end and an open end, the garment has an inner cylindrically shaped skin concentrically aligned with an outer cylindrically shaped skin and the respective skin ends are lap jointed together to form a support band and a closure member is secured at one end to form said closed end and an access member is secured at the other end to form said open end to allow access to the interior of said inner skin.

Conveniently, the second outlet can be formed in the closure member and the first outlet is formed in the outer skin. In both cases, the outer skin can be transparent and the inner skin can include padding suitable for the part of the patients body enclosed or encircled.

The invention also includes apparatus for use in applying intermittant pressure to a part of the patients body comprising a source of intermittant fluid pressure, a source of substantially continuous gas pressure, and an inflatable compression gar ment as described above wherein the source of intermittant fluid pressure is connected to said first inlet and the source of substantially continuous gas pressure is connected to said second inlet.

The source of intermittant pressure may be a gas compressor having two outlets, a first of the out lets providing intermittant gas pressure to the first inlet of the inflatable compression garment and the second outlet providing continuous gas pressure to said second inlet of said garment.

Conveniently, the garment includes means to isolate said first outlet from the first inlet for a predetermined time interval and to connect said first inlet to said second inlet during the time interval.

Alternatively or additionally, the source of gas pressure to the said second inlet may be independent of the source of fluid pressure to the first inlet of the compression garment.

Preferably, the gas pressure applied to the said second inlet is greater than the maximum fluid pressure in the inflated garment.

The gas supplied to the second inlet may be oxygen gas or a gas having a greater concentration of oxygen and atmospheric air.

The apparatus may include a plurality of garments according to the invention, the first inlet of each garment being connected to the source of fluid pressure such that the pressure derived from the source is intermittant for that garment and the second inlet of each garment being connected to the source of ventilating gas.

The present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 illustrates apparatus for use in applying intermittant pressure to a part of a patients body including an inflatable compression garment embodying the present invention.

Figure 2 illustrates an inflatable compression garment embodying the present invention.

The apparatus illustrated, comprises a compression garment 1 embodying the present invention, that illustrated being shown as a glove. The compression garment 1 comprises inner and outer skin members 2, 3 defining a closed, sealed wall cavity 4. The general shape of the glove is that of a tube having a closed end. A gas inlet 5 is provided to communicate with the sealed wall cavity 4. A second gas inlet 6 is provided to communicate with the limb receiving interior face of the garment.

The apparatus comprises in addition to the garment 1, a gas supply and control unit 7 containing a gas compressor 8 having two separate outlets 9 and 10 for compressed gas. The outlet 9 is an unregulated outlet providing a continuous source of gas pressure which is connected by conduits 11 including shutter valve 12 to the second gas inlet 6 of the garment. Further gas conduit 13 is teed into conduit 11 and between the shutter valve and the inlet 6 of it is connected to an alternative source of gas, not shown, such as an outlet regulator or a gas cylinder or the outlet of a separate gas com pressor.

Outlet 10 of the compressor 8 communicates with a regulator for gas pressure 14 having a control accessible from the exterior of the unit 7. Gas passes from the outlet 10 through the regulator 14 to a control unit 15 which renders the pressure supplied intermittent. The action of control unit 15 may be fixed or may be adjustable by controls provided on the unit. In particular, controls may be provided to alter the frequency in which the con trol unit 15 switches the final outlet of the unit 16 from high pressure to low pressure and back to high pressure. For example, for 50% of the time cycle the garment can be pressurised to 60mm Hg.

A number of air outlets controlled in this manner may be provided on a single unit 7. Outlet 16 is connected via conduit 17 to the inlet 5 of the garment 1. In operation, the garment 1 may be inflated to a predetermined maximum pressure over a predetermined time interval and then allowed to deflate at a controlled rate to a predetermined minimum pressure. At the same time, gas pressure is supplied continuously to the inlet 6 either from outlet 9 of the compressor or via conduit 13. The shut off valve 12 would normally be in the shut position when gas is being introduced through conduit 13. The gas pressure applied to inlet 6 will be chosen such that there is a flow of air through the inlet and past a limb in the garment, at least when the garment is at the most deflated part of its cycle.The pressure applied to gas inlet 6 may be chosen to be sufficiently great that there is always a flow of gas therethrough. The flow will generally decrease as the garment itself is inflated and increase as it is deflated. The gas supplied to inlet 6 may be air but may be either oxygen or an oxygen-enriched gas having an oxygen content greater than that of air for certain therapeutics purposes.

Referring to Figure 2, items which are common to Figure 1 bear the same reference. The inner skin 2 comprises a pre-cut rectangular section of thermoplastic material, which is welded to form an inner cylinder by means of seam 20. Similarly, the outer skin member 3 comprises a pre-cut piece of thermoplastic material which is welded at a seam 20 to form an outer cylinder. The inner skin cylinder is inserted within the outer skin cylinder and the free ends are doubled back and are lap jointed together to form a support band at both ends as shown on the enlarged view included in Figure 2.

Preferably, the ends are lap jointed together by use of high frequency welding. A closure panel 21 is welded to the cylindrical skins to close one end thereof and an access member comprising an annular ring of material is welded to the other end of the cylinders to form an opening at the other end to allow access to the interior of the garment for a limb. A grommet 23 can be prewelded into the outer skin for receiving the inlet 5. Similarly, the end panel 21 can include a grommet 24 for receiving the inlet 6.

The garmet illustrated has a closed and an open end and the gas supplied is shown being introduced at the closed end. In the case of a garment having two open ends, such as a sleeve or an open ended boot, it will be advantageous to supply the ventilating gas at a point substantially midway between the open ends so as to provide relatively even flow of ventilating gas in both directions.

If desired, more than one ventilation gas inlet may be provided. Equally, more than one inflation fluid inlet may be provided. However, this is not generally necessary.

The unit 7 may be provided with more than one outlet for fluid at intermittent varying pressure. In such a system, a garment may be connected to each of a pair of such outlets such that one garment is inflated whilst the other garment is allowed to deflate. In a modification of the apparatus shown in the figures the controller 15 connects to the inflated garment to the ventilation input 6, during the deflation phase of its cycle, preferably via a non return valve, such that when the maximum inflation pressure is greater than the pressure applied through conduit 11,the garment is allowed to deflate at least in part through the ventilation conduit 11 to enhance the flow of ventilation gas.

Preferably, for 50 of the repeat cycle, the garment is inflated to 60mm of mercury and ventilation is provided for the remaining' portion of the cycle, the ventilated garment being connected to deflate through the garment thereby increasing the ventilating air supply.

Alternatively, the garments can be adapted to operate in conjunction with an inflation and deflation cycle varying the pressure within the garment by means of a variable pressure control from over 100mm of mercury to below 10mm of mercury over a time period such as two minutes for inflation and two minutes for deflation.

Garments as described above are flexible, and upon inflation the inner wall molds and conforms to the shape of the part of the body enclosed. They may therefore apply compression to an enclosed body part, for example a limb, even though they are not a close fit when in the deflated state.

The garments may include means such as strapping or a harness to keep the garment in a desired position when the shape of the body part enclosed is such that the garment would tend to be displaced either by the wearer's own movement or by the intermittent compression.

The garment is suitably constructed from polyurethane coated nylon, polyvinyl chloride or similar materials and be opaque or clear. Preferably, the outer skin is transparent and the inner skin includes padding suitable for the limb enclosed or encircled.

Claims (19)

1. An inflatable compression garment adapted to enclose or encircle a part of a patients body and upon inflation to apply compression thereto, comprising a first inlet for inflating fluid, and having a second inlet for the introduction of ventilation gas to the interior of the garment.

2. A garment as claimed in claim 1 having a closed end and an open end, the said second inlet opening into the interior of the garment at the closed end thereof.

3. A garment as claimed in claim 1 having two open ends wherein the second inlet opens into the interior of the garment substantially midway between the open ends.

4. A garment as claimed in claim 3 having an inner cylindrically shaped skin concentrically aligned with an outer cylindrically shaped skin and wherein respective skin ends are lap jointed together to form a support band.

5. A garment as claimed in claim 2 having an inner cylindrically shaped skin concentrically aligned with an outer cylindrically shaped skin and wherein respective skin ends are lap jointed to form a support band and a closure member is secured at one end to form said closed end and an access member is secured at the other end to form said other end to allow access to the interior of said inner skin.

6. A garment as claimed in claim 5 wherein said second inlet is formed in said closure member and said first inlet is formed in the outer skin.

7. A garment as claimed in any one of claims 4 to 6 wherein the outer skin is transparent and the inner skin includes padding suitable for the part of the patience body enclosed or encircled.

8. A garment as claimed in any one of claims 1, 2 or 5 which garment is a glove or boot.

9. A garment as claimed in any one of claims 1, 3 or 4 wherein the garment is a sleeve or legging.

10. An inflatable compression garment substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

11. Apparatus for use in applying intermittent pressure to a part of the patients body comprising a source of intermittent fluid pressure, a source of substantially continuous gas pressure, and an inflatable compression garment as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the source of intermittent fluid pressure is connected to said first inlet and the source of substantially continuous gas pressure is connected to the said second inlet.

12. Apparatus as claimed in claim 11 wherein the source of intermittent fluid pressure is a source of intermittent gas pressure.

13. Apparatus as claimed in claim 12 wherein the source of intermittent gas pressure is a gas compressor having two outlets, a first of the outlets providing intermittent gas pressure to the first inlet of the inflatable compression garment and the second outlet providing continuous gas pressure to said second inlet of the said garment.

14. Apparatus as claimed in claim 13 including means to isolate said first outlet from the first inlet for a predetermined time interval and to connect said first inlet to said second inlet during the time interval.

15. Apparatus as claimed in claim 11 or 12 wherein the source of gas pressure to the said second inlet is independent of the source of fluid pressure to the first inlet of the compression garment.

16. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 11 to 15 wherein the gas pressure applied to the said second inlet is greater than the maximum fluid pressure in the inflated garment.

17. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 11 to 16 wherein the gas supplied to the second inlet provides oxygen gas or a gas having a greater concentration of oxygen than atmospheric air.

18. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 3 to 17 including a plurality of inflatable compression garments as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 10, the first inlet of each garment being connected to the source of fluid pressure such that the pressure derived from the source is intermittent for that garment and the second inlet of each garment being connected to the source of ventilating gas.

19. Apparatus for use in applying intermittent pressure to a part of the patients body with a simultaneous ventilation of the said part substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.