AU2010358605A1

AU2010358605A1 - Anococcygeal support

Info

Publication number: AU2010358605A1
Application number: AU2010358605A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Heng Hai Chew
Original assignee: MECHA MEDIC SOLUTIONS Sdn Bhd
Current assignee: MECHA-MEDIC SOLUTIONS Sdn Bhd
Priority date: 2010-08-05
Filing date: 2010-08-05
Publication date: 2013-03-21
Also published as: WO2012018245A8; JP2013535285A; KR20140018173A; WO2012018245A1

Abstract

Anococcygeal region supporting apparatus (100) comprises a base structure (110) mounted around the proximal area of a seat member (120); a shaft body (130) extended out from the base structure (110) towards the anterior end of the seat member (120) at an upwardly tilted angle in such a way that part of the shaft body (130) presses against at perianal area of the anococcygeal region of a seated user to support the anococcygeal region; characterized in that the shaft body (120) and/or the base structure is positioned in between a pair of slopes (150) descending backwardly from the shaft body (120) and/or the base structure (110).

Description

WO 2012/018245 PCT/MY2010/000138 1 ANOCOCCYGEAL SUPPORT FIELD OF INVENTION 5 The present invention relates to an improved anococcygeal support, particularly it is used during defecation to avoid tearing anal mucosa at adjacent to the anococcygeal area and the disclosed invention is equipped with a seating aid which provides more comfortable seating position for the users of various hip sizes. 10 BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Constipation is common problem in our life. One of the main causes of constipation is related to formation of hard stools that can. be largely attributed to our eating habits and life style. Hard stool requires straining during defecation, which may potentially lead to hemorrhoids, piles or anal fissure due to overstretching of the anal opening. Straining increase pressure in 15 abdominal cavity will also descend the pelvic floor. Repeated descend of pelvic floor as incase of chronic constipation patient the pelvic floor muscle will gradually lax and sag. The laxity and sagging of pelvic floor would be more in cases of women, who had birth trauma. Anal fissure may advance to more complicated condition such as perianal abscess if not treated well. Anal fissure generally occurs at the post quadrant area of the anus as the 20 anococcygeal area at this part of the pelvic floor is practically unsupported by any bone structure and overstretching of the anal opening thus cannot be restrained. Moreover, defecation is routine and unavoidable process subjecting the developed anal fissure to continuous overstretching cycles hurdling the healing process. Consequently, anal fissure become chronic medical condition which is difficult to treat and may complicates to other 25 related medical' conditions. To avoid development of anal fissure or alleviate the established medical condition, apparatus that eases the defecation process especially for hard stool is needed besides operative measures.

WO 2012/018245 PCT/MY2010/000138 2 For example, United States patent application no. 4244063 discloses a toilet seat providing physical stimulation to induce bowel movement claiming the seat as an effective tool to relieve constipation and aid in release of intestinal gases. The toilet seat has two elongated buttock supporting members having a general curvature to overlie a portion of a toilet bowl 5 upper surface and inner portion of the uppers surface of the buttock supporting member contours concavely that the concave curvature shows greater degree of curvature than the general curvature of the buttock supporting member. Further, a pair of protruding ridges at the base portion, which connects the two buttock supporting members, applies pressure to muscle used in bowel movement to stimulate the bowel movement. 10 Another United States patent application no. 6584621 provides a toilet seat with twin egg shaped protrusion at the backward tail end central region of the seat. The twin protrusions apply repeated rocking motions onto the gluteal muscles of the user leading to activation of the bowel movement and ease the evacuation of feces. 15 Chew, inventor of the present invention, has offered a toilet seat equipped with anococcygeal support in an International Patent with publication no. W02008/02075 1. The support is a tongue-like protrusion located at the posterior section of the seat. The anococcygeal area presses against the protrusion to acquire supportive reinforcement onto the anococcygeal area 20 during defecation preventing tearing of the perianal area. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention aims to provide a supporting apparatus, which is mounted on a seat member, for anococcygeal area of an user. The supporting apparatus particularly presses 25 against the post perianal (anococcygeal) area during evacuation of feces to prevent pelvic floor descend and avoid tearing of the anal opening caused by overstretching of the opening. Another object of the present invention is to disclose an anococcygeal supporting apparatus which can be used and fit for pelvic floor of various size to support the weight of an user.

WO 2012/018245 PCT/MY2010/000138 3 More specifically, the present invention includes a means to allow user of various pelvic size to seat on the disclosed apparatus with minimized discomfort. This newly equipped feature can be perceived as a continuous effort of the inventor to improve previous filed patent application W02008/02075 1. 5 At least one of the preceding objects is met, in whole or in part, by the present invention, in which one of the embodiment of the present invention is an anococcygeal region supporting apparatus comprising a base structure mounted around the proximal area of a seat member; a shaft body extended out from the base towards the anterior end of the seat member at an 10 upwardly tilted angle in such a way that part of the shaft body presses against the anococcygeal region at the posterior perianal area of a seated user to support the anococcygeal region; characterized in that the shaft body and/or the base structure is positioned in between a pair of slopes descending toward laterally and backwardly from the shaft body and/or the base structure. More preferably, the base structure is tapered towards 15 the shaft body. For aesthetic reason or ease the storing of the disclosed apparatus, the shaft body of the disclosed apparatus may be made to be telescopically extendable or retractable. Further, the base of the disclosed invention is preferably moveable at the horizontal planar in relative to 20 the seat member that the user can adjust the disclosed -apparatus to a position best fit the seated posture of the user. To avoid the user from accidentally injuring him or herself particularly caused by great pressure applied to the anococcygeal region, the shaft body is partly or completely made of 25 resilient material which allows the shaft body bending downward upon pressure from the supported anococcygeal region exceeds a predetermined threshold.

WO 2012/018245 PCT/MY2010/000138 4 In another preferred embodiment, the seat member in the present invention refers to a toilet seat with a central opening that the shaft body is pending above the central opening. Parts of the shaft body contact and support anococcygeal region of the user during defecation. 5 Preferably, the shaft body has one point presses against the anococcygeal region at the posterior perianal area of a seated user to support the anococcygeal region. An abrupt downward curvature is formed on the shaft contiguous to the pressing point in such a way that the tip of the coccyx bone is not pressed annoying the user when the disclosed apparatus is in use. 10 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 shows one embodiment of the disclosed anococcygeal supporting apparatus being mounted onto a toilet seat; 15 Figure 2 shows top view of the embodiment shown in figure 1; Figure 3 shows the possible discomfort inflicted to the user when the user has relatively smaller pelvic bone with two ischium bone closer to each other to support the weight of the user once seated onto the disclosed apparatus; and 20 Figure 4 shows the improved feature of the disclosed invention in supporting pelvic bone of various size with the slopping area fabricated around the shaft body. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 25 The most preferred embodiment of the invention is now described with reference to the figures, where like reference numbers indicate identical or functionally similar elements. While specific configurations and arrangements are discussed, it should be understood that this is done for illustrative purposes only. A person skilled in the art will recognize that the WO 2012/018245 PCT/MY2010/000138 5 other configurations and arrangements can be used without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. The present invention involves an anococcygeal region supporting apparatus (100), as 5 illustrated in figure 1, comprising a base structure (110) mounted around the proximal area of a seat member (120); a shaft body (130) extended out from the base structure (110) towards the anterior end of the seat member (120), preferably at an upwardly tilted angle, in such a way that part of the shaft body (130) presses against the anococcygeal region of perineum of a seated user to support the anococcygeal region; characterized in that the shaft body (120) 10 and/or the base structure is positioned in between a pair of slopes (150) descending laterally and/or backwardly from the shaft body (120) and/or the base structure (110). It is important to be noted the slopes (150) descending from the shaft body (120) and/or the base structure (110) act as a means to adjust the seating position, particularly seating height in relative to the shaft body, of the users. With reference to figure 3, in the embodiment lack of the slopes or 15 raised area (150), users with pelvic bone of normal dimension (101a) can comfortably sit on the seat member (120) incorporated with the anococcygeal region supporting apparatus (100) as the weight of the seated user can fully rest on the ischium bone (102a) abutting the seat member (120). On the other hand, users with relatively smaller pelvic dimension (101b) may suffer inadequate reinforcement from the ischium bone (1 02b) as the ischium bone is not able 20 to reach the upper surface of the seat member (120) as shown in figure 3. Instead, weight of the user in such circumstance is solely borne by the coccyx bone (103b) pending above the shaft body (130). Pressure applied onto the coccyx bone (103b) will cause discomfort. Moreover, user may accidental injure himself/herself while adapting this imbalance sitting posture with heavy body weight forced onto the coccyx bone. 25 In order to avoid occurrence of the uncomfortable sensation mentioned above, the inventor of the present invention devise raised area or slopes (150) to be fabricated around the shaft body (130) to serve as a means allowing the user of various pelvic dimension to rest comfortably on the seat member (120), preferably rest on ischium bone (102), rather than bearing the WO 2012/018245 PCT/MY2010/000138 6 weight on the coccyx bone (103). When the distance between paired ischium grow shorter, the length of the paired ischium at the vertical planar becomes shorter as well according to a ratio range. The present invention employs this ratio in developing the raised area or slopes (150) which are capable of accommodating users with various pelvic dimension. 5 Subsequently, the user with smaller pelvic bone is seated onto higher region of the slope while those having larger pelvic bone takes the lower region of the slopes. Yet, the part of the supporting area or the shaft body supporting the anococcygeal region presses the post perianal area at an approximate similar position that the pressure applied onto the post perianal area is within the preferred range for users of various pelvic dimension. 10 Pursuant to the more preferred embodiment of the disclosed invention, the seat member (120) is a toilet seat with a central opening (125) that the shaft body (120) is pending above the central opening as in figure 1 and 2. As in setting forth, the disclosed apparatus is preferably located at the posterior position or back end of the seat member (120). The base (110) 15 attaches onto the toilet seat while the shaft extends towards the anterior or central of the seat member (120). The disclosed apparatus is particular useful in this embodiment to prevent descend of pelvic floor and overstretching and tear of back portion of anus during defecation process. Pressure applied onto the post perianal area ensures the anal opening would not overstretch backward till tearing occurs. Further, the pressure further stimulates bowel 20 movement by enhancing the pressure of feces on to the rectal to bring about stronger reflex of defecation to further facilitates feces evacuation and lessen the demand on straining the stool out of the anus. The toilet seat of this embodiment may be coupled with a toilet seat cover with inner concave contour to fit the tilted pending shaft body when the cover is switched to a position to shield the plughole. Besides being incorporated to a toilet seat to prevent 25 development of anal fissure, the present invention can be used to protect episiotomy wound or spontaneous birth trauma. As shown in figure 2, the disclosed apparatus (100) adapts a substantially triangular shape when it is perceived from the horizontal planar. Nonetheless, such disclosure shall not serve WO 2012/018245 PCT/MY2010/000138 7 as limitation to the disclosed invention. It is known in the art the disclosed apparatus can adapt different shapes to cater similar prophylactic effect in preventing anal fissure. For instance, the base structure (110) can be in the form of polygonal, circular and the like. Yet, preferably, the base structure (110) is tapered towards the shaft body (130). Such design 5 permit the tapered shaft body to be slide through the intergluteal cleft without causing much friction onto the skin yet providing sufficient support onto the perianal area. Though the shaft body is illustrated as an elongated protrusion in the disclosed figure, the shaft body (130), in fact, may actually comprise several protrusion branched out from the base structure (110) or the a secondary protrusion branched out from the other protrusions as long one of the 10 protrusions derived thereof can sufficiently support the anococcygeal area. Further in other embodiment, the base structure (110) may only refer to the point which the disclosed apparatus mounted onto the seat member (120) and the rest of the disclosed apparatus is construed as the shaft body (130). 15 In another aspect, the shaft body (130) is telescopically extendable or retractable or even foldable to keep the disclosed apparatus away when it is not used. Any known methods or mechanism known may be employed in the present invention to carry out such feature without any limitation. 20 In accordance with one embodiment, the raised area or slopes (150) are integrally fabricated onto the seat member (120) rather than derived from the body shaft (120). The shaft body (130) and/or the base structure (110) is disposed in between the slopes (150), probably a recess or indentation is made to thereof to fit in the shaft body (130) and/or the base structure (110). Likewise, another embodiment may have the slopes (150) integrally fabricated onto 25 the anococcygeal region supporting apparatus (100). To avoid injury to the support anococcygeal region, the disclosed apparatus may completely or the shaft body (130) is partly or completely made of resilient material which allow the shaft body (130) bending downward upon receiving pressure from the supported WO 2012/018245 PCT/MY2010/000138 8 anococcygeal region. Preferably, the shaft body is bent downwardly when the pressure applied exceed a pre-determined tested threshold. The bent shaft body shall resume its former position once the pressure is removed. 5 According to one embodiment, the base structure (110) is integrally fabricated onto the seat member as a single unit, while the base structure (110) is moveable in relative to the seat member (120) in other embodiments to render flexibility for the user to adjust the position of the disclosed apparatus (100) on the seat member (120). For example, the base structure (110) is hingably mounted to the seat member (120) to allow pivot movement relative to the seat 10 member (120). Apart from that, the base structure (110) may be made to moveable at the horizontal planar in relative to the seat member (120) as well. For example, the base structure (110) mounts on a track provided on the seat member (120) that the sliding along the track permit limited horizontal movement of the disclosed apparatus (100) on the seat member (120). Still in another embodiment, the disclosed apparatus (100) is detachable from the seat 15 member (120) upon user preference. The disclosed apparatus can be removed from the seat member (120) when it is not used. Any known mechanism such as clips, clamps, snap fasteners and the likes, capable of removably mounting the disclosed apparatus to the seat member may be applied in the present invention. 20 It is to be understood that the present invention may be embodied in other specific forms and is not limited to the sole embodiment described above. However modification and equivalents of the disclosed concepts such as those which readily occur to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the claims which are appended thereto.

Claims

1. Anococcygeal region supporting apparatus (100) comprising a base structure (110) mounted around the proximal area of a seat member (120); 5 a shaft body (130) extended out from the base structure (110) towards the anterior end of the seat member (120) in such a way that part of the shaft body (130) presses against at perianal area of the anococcygeal region of a seated user to support the anococcygeal region; characterized in that the shaft body (120) and/or the base structure is positioned in between a pair of slopes (150) descending laterally and/or 10 backwardly from the shaft body (120) and/or the base structure (110).

2. Anococcygeal region supporting apparatus (100) of claim 1, wherein the base structure (110) is tapered towards the shaft body (130). 15

3. Anococcygeal region supporting apparatus (100) of claim 1 or 2; wherein the slopes (150) are integrally fabricated onto the seat member (120).

4. Anococcygeal region supporting apparatus (100) of claim 1 or 2, wherein the slopes (150) are integrally fabricated onto the anococcygeal region supporting apparatus 20 (100).

5. Anococcygeal region supporting apparatus (100) of claim 1 or 2; wherein the shaft body (130) is telescopically extendable or retractable. 25

6. Anococcygeal region supporting apparatus (100) of claim 1 or 2; wherein the base structure (110) is hingably mounted to the seat member (120). WO 2012/018245 PCT/MY2010/000138 10

7. Anococcygeal region supporting apparatus (100) of claim 1 or 2; wherein the base structure (110) is moveable at the horizontal planar in relative to the seat member (120). 5

8. Anococcygeal region supporting apparatus (100) of claim 1 or 2, wherein the shaft body (130) is partly or completely made of resilient material which allow the shaft body (130) bending downward upon receiving pressure from the supported anococcygeal region. 10

9. Anococcygeal region supporting apparatus of claim 1 or 2, wherein the base structure (110) is integrally fabricated onto the seat member as a single unit.

10. Anococcygeal region supporting apparatus of claim 1, wherein the seat member (120) is a toilet seat with a central opening (125) that the shaft body (120) is pending above 15 the central opening.