JP6189229B2 - Inner cap and scalp cooling device including the same - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an inner cap and a scalp cooling device for cooling a scalp including the inner cap.

  Chemotherapy used in cancer treatment often involves hair loss, and it is a problem that the QOL is significantly reduced, such as psychological distress of patients. It is known that such hair loss can be prevented or suppressed by maintaining the scalp at a low temperature and suppressing the hair root from absorbing a therapeutic agent for chemotherapy. For this reason, a head cooling device aimed at preventing hair loss due to chemotherapy has been proposed (see Patent Document 1 and the like). In such a head cooling device, a cooling medium flow path is formed inside a helmet-shaped member worn on the user's head, and the cooling medium is circulated in the cooling medium flow path so that the scalp and the cooling medium are separated. The scalp is cooled by heat exchange.

Japanese Patent No. 5133355

  The helmet-shaped member that is worn on the user's head is often made by molding from a synthetic resin such as silicone rubber. Silicone rubber has a certain degree of flexibility, but the shape and size of the user's head varies, and it is difficult to make it adhere to the entire head. The inner surface of the helmet-shaped member functions as a heat exchange surface, so if there is a gap between the user's scalp and the inner surface of the helmet-shaped member and the scalp, a part of the scalp contacts the inner surface of the helmet-shaped member This causes problems such as uneven cooling of the scalp and reduced cooling efficiency. As a method of reducing such a gap, in order to easily adapt to the shape and size of the user's head, an inner member made of a flexible material is attached between the cap-shaped member and the scalp. Is also possible. However, the inner member is generally made of a material such as fiber or foam, and since such a material has a heat insulating property, the presence of the inner member hinders heat conduction, and instead reduces cooling efficiency. The problem of letting it occur.

  Further, in the head cooling device described in Patent Document 1, an inner head cover having a cavity that can be filled with gel or liquid is used as an inner member in order to reduce a gap between the user's head and a helmet-shaped member. ing. However, in this case, it is necessary to fill the internal head cover with gel or liquid after the helmet-shaped member with the internal head cover disposed inside is attached to the head, which increases labor during use. Moreover, the problem that the piping to a head increases and the load to a head becomes large also arises.

  Therefore, the object of the present invention is to solve the problems existing in the prior art, in the scalp cooling device, without interfering with the heat conduction with the scalp and without the need for filling with liquid or gel etc. This is to improve the thermal conductivity with the scalp.

  In view of the above-described object, the present invention is an inner cap that is mounted inside a cooling cap for cooling a user's head, and includes a nonwoven fabric layer formed of a nonwoven fabric, and the nonwoven fabric layer has a high water absorption property. An inner cap that is a water absorption layer made of a resin fiber material is provided.

  The inner cap includes a water absorption layer made of a highly water absorbent resin fiber material. Superabsorbent resin fiber material is a fiber using superabsorbent resin that becomes gel-like when it contains moisture, and it swells and becomes flexible when it contains moisture, filling gaps and adapting to various shapes. Make it possible. Moreover, thermal conductivity is also improved when the highly water-absorbent resin fiber material absorbs moisture.

  In one embodiment of the inner cap, the water absorbing layer is located between the inner layer and the outer layer, and the inner layer and the outer layer are made of a fiber material.

  Further, the present invention is a scalp cooling device that is mounted on a user's head and cools the scalp, wherein a cooling medium flow path is formed therein, and the cooling medium is circulated through the cooling medium flow path. There is provided a scalp cooling device comprising a cooling cap for cooling a scalp and the inner cap mounted on the inside of the cooling cap.

  A cooling medium flow path is formed inside, and it fits the user's head of various shapes and sizes by mounting the inner cap as described above inside the cooling cap that is mounted on the patient's head. It becomes easy to make. Moreover, the thermal conductivity between the cooling medium in the cooling medium flow path and the scalp is also improved.

  It is preferable that the scalp cooling device further includes an outer cap attached to the outside of the cooling cap. In this case, it is more preferable that the outer cap is made of a heat insulating material.

  According to the inner cap of the present invention, a water absorption layer made of a highly water absorbent resin fiber material is provided, and by absorbing water into the water absorption layer, the heads of users of various shapes and sizes The thermal conductivity is improved. Therefore, if such an inner cap is attached to the inside of the cooling cap of the scalp cooling device, the adhesion to the patient's head is enhanced and the thermal conductivity is also increased. Therefore, the scalp can be cooled more efficiently.

1 is an exploded view showing an overall configuration of a scalp cooling device including an inner cap according to the present invention. It is a partially broken perspective view which shows the cooling-medium flow path inside the cooling cap of a scalp cooling device. It is explanatory drawing which showed the inner cap in the cross section in order to demonstrate the multilayer structure of the inner cap by this invention.

Hereinafter, with reference to drawings, an embodiment of an inner cap according to the present invention and a scalp cooling device including the inner cap will be described.
Initially, the whole structure of the scalp cooling device 11 is demonstrated with reference to drawings.

  Referring to FIG. 1, the scalp cooling device 11 includes a cooling cap 13, an outer cap 15, and an inner cap 17, and supplies a cooling medium to the cooling cap 13 from an external cooling medium supply device (not shown). By circulating the inside of the cooling cap 13, the scalp of the user wearing the cooling cap 13 is cooled. As the cooling medium, a liquid (cooling liquid) is preferably used, but a gas (cooling gas) such as air can also be used.

  The cooling cap 13 has a helmet shape as shown in FIG. 1 so as to be easily mounted on the user's head. The cooling cap 13 is provided with a first cooling medium port 19 and a second cooling medium port 21, and pipes 23 and 25 for supplying and discharging the cooling medium to and from these ports 19 and 21, respectively (see FIG. 2) is connected. In FIG. 2, the front side of the cooling cap 13 in the drawing is the front side at the time of mounting, and the first cooling medium port is set so that the pipes 23 and 25 do not hinder the mounting operation and the visibility at the time of mounting. 19 and the second cooling medium port 21 are provided on the rear side of the cooling cap 13. However, the first cooling medium port 19 and the second cooling medium port 21 may be provided on the front side or the side portion of the cooling cap 13.

  As shown in FIG. 2, a cooling medium flow path 27 extending between the first cooling medium port 19 and the second cooling medium port 21 is formed in the cooling cap 13. The cooling medium supplied to 13 can flow through the cooling medium flow path 27. As the cooling medium flows through the cooling medium flow path 27, the cooling cap 13 is cooled, and as a result, the user's scalp is cooled by heat exchange with the user's scalp wearing the cooling cap 13. If the first cooling medium port 19 and the second cooling medium port 21 are communicated by the cooling medium flow path 27, the cooling medium flow path 27 may include a branch flow path in the middle. It may be configured by a single flow path without branching. It is also possible to provide a plurality of sets of first cooling medium ports and second cooling medium ports in the cooling cap 13 and form cooling medium flow paths between the respective sets. However, it is preferable to provide only one set of the first cooling medium port 19 and the second cooling medium port 21 in the cooling cap 13 and form the cooling medium flow path 27 therebetween. This is because if the cooling cap 13 is provided with only one set of the first cooling medium port 19 and the second cooling medium port 21, two pipes connected to the cooling cap 13 (that is, supply the cooling medium). Therefore, it is possible to reduce the weight of the cooling cap 13 and reduce the weight of the user when the cooling cap 13 is mounted. This is because the load can be reduced.

  The outer cap 15 is attached to the outside of the cooling cap 13. The outer cap 15 is made of a heat insulating material such as urethane, and suppresses an increase in the temperature of the cooling medium in the cooling cap 13 due to the influence of the outside air temperature. In addition, the cooling cap 13 is urged toward the scalp to reduce the gap between the cooling cap 13 and the scalp, thereby improving the cooling effect.

  The inner cap 17 is attached to the inner side of the cooling cap 13, and fills the gap between the cooling cap 13 and the scalp and has the effect of increasing the thermal conductivity. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 3, the inner cap 17 includes an outer layer 17a, an inner layer 17b, and an intermediate layer 17c disposed between the outer layer 17a and the inner layer 17b. It has a multilayer structure. The outer layer 17a and the inner layer 17b are preferably made of a woven fabric mainly composed of polyester. The outer layer 17a is provided in order to improve design properties such as patterns and colors, and is made of a woven material made of polyester and cotton, for example. Since the inner layer 17b is a part that directly contacts the human body, the inner layer 17b is made of a material excellent in touch, for example, a knit material made of polyester.

  The intermediate layer 17c is made of a non-woven fabric made of a highly water-absorbent resin fiber material, and has a function of imparting flexibility and adapting to the shape and size of the user's head and improving thermal conductivity. Fulfill. As the highly water-absorbing resin fiber material, for example, a material in which a highly water-absorbing resin is arranged around an acrylic fiber can be used.

  Since the highly water-absorbent resin fiber material swells and becomes flexible by absorbing moisture, it deforms in accordance with the shape of the gap between the user's scalp and the cooling cap 13, and the shape and size of the user's head. Fits. In addition, since the highly water-absorbent resin fiber material has improved thermal conductivity by absorbing moisture, the heat exchange efficiency between the cooling cap 13 and the scalp can be improved and uniform cooling can be performed without unevenness. . Further, if the inner cap 17 that has absorbed moisture is cooled in advance, a further scalp cooling effect can be achieved.

  When using the scalp cooling device 11, first, the inner cap 17 that has absorbed moisture is mounted on the user's head, and the cooling cap 13 is mounted on the inner cap 17. As a result, the inner cap 17 swollen with moisture is deformed in accordance with the shape of the gap between the user's scalp and the cooling cap 13, and conforms to the shape and size of the user's head. Next, the outer cap 15 is mounted on the cooling cap 13. As a result, the cooling cap 13 is pressed against the scalp by the outer cap 15, the scalp and the cooling cap 13 are more closely attached, and heat exchange between the outside air and the cooling cap 13 is suppressed, thereby improving the cooling efficiency. Contribute. A cooling medium is supplied from an external cooling medium supply device (not shown) to the cooling cap 13 and circulated through the cooling medium flow path 27 of the cooling cap 13, and then the cooling medium is discharged and collected in the cooling medium supply device. By circulating, the cooling cap 13 is cooled, and the user's scalp is cooled by heat exchange between the cooling cap 13 and the scalp.

  Thus, according to the scalp cooling device 11, the inner cap 17 that has absorbed moisture is disposed between the cooling cap 13 and the user's scalp, so that the inner surface (heat exchange surface) of the inner cap 17 It is possible to fill the gap and improve the thermal conductivity. As a result, the user's scalp can be cooled more efficiently. In addition, if the inner cap 17 is cooled in advance, the cooling efficiency can be further improved.

  The inner cap 17 and the scalp cooling device 11 having the inner cap 17 of the present invention have been described above with reference to the illustrated embodiment. However, the present invention is not limited to the illustrated embodiment. For example, in the illustrated embodiment, the water-absorbing layer made of a non-woven fabric formed of the superabsorbent resin fiber material is disposed between the outer layer and the inner layer made of the woven fabric. The inner layer can also be made from a nonwoven fabric, and the outer layer and the inner layer can be omitted.

11 Scalp Cooling Device 13 Cooling Cap 15 Outer Cap 17 Inner Cap 27 Cooling Medium Channel

Claims (5)

An inner cap that is attached to the inside of the cooling cap for cooling the user's head,
Includes a non-woven layer formed by the nonwoven fabric, Ri water layer der that the nonwoven fabric layer was produced by the superabsorbent polymer fiber material,
An inner cap characterized in that the water absorption layer absorbs moisture so as to be flexible, and a close contact between the user's head and the inside of the cooling cap can be made by filling the gap .   The inner cap according to claim 1, wherein the water absorption layer is located between the inner layer and the outer layer, and the inner layer and the outer layer are made of a fiber material. A cooling scalp cooling device that is mounted on the user's head and cools the scalp,
A cooling medium flow path is formed inside, and a cooling cap that cools the scalp by circulating the cooling medium through the cooling medium flow path,
The inner cap according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the inner cap is attached to the inside of the cooling cap;
A scalp cooling device comprising:   The scalp cooling device according to claim 3, further comprising an outer cap attached to the outside of the cooling cap.   The scalp cooling device according to claim 4, wherein the outer cap is made of a heat insulating material.

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