WO2005067859A1

WO2005067859A1 - Support device for elevating the legs of a person

Info

Publication number: WO2005067859A1
Application number: PCT/DK2005/000030
Authority: WO
Inventors: Flora Chia Alpacho
Original assignee: Flora Chia Alpacho
Priority date: 2004-01-19
Filing date: 2005-01-19
Publication date: 2005-07-28
Also published as: DK200400055U3

Abstract

A support device (1;10) for maintaining the feet and lower portion of the legs of a person elevated with respect to an underlying surface, said support device comprising: at least two stabilizing support elements (4;12), one for each leg of the person and displacement means (3; 14,15) allowing said stabilizing support elements (4;12) to be displaced mainly parallel to said underlying surface and where the height of each stabilizing support element (4;12), with respect to the underlying surface, is independently adjustable. The support device (1;10) can be used in many different situations. One such situation is when helping a person dress or undress. Two other example situations are during the treatment of a wound on the lower leg and during the changing of a bandage on the lower leg.

Description

Support device for elevating the legs of a person

The present invention relates to a support device for maintaining the feet and lower portion of the legs of a person elevated with respect to an underlying surface, said support device comprising: at least two stabilizing support elements, one for each leg of the person and displacement means allowing said stabilizing support elements to be displaced mainly parallel to said underlying surface. The support device can be used in many different situations. One such situation is when helping a person dress or undress. Two other example situations are during the treatment of a wound on the lower leg and during the changing of a bandage on the lower leg.

There are many situations where it is necessary for a helper to assist a person with dressing or undressing. This could be the case if the person is weakened, for example by age. Other reasons could be a temporary or permanent loss of or reduction in motor skills, due to for example sickness, injury or a birth handicap. Persons who require help are therefore not members of a particular age group or of a particular sex.

Help with dressing or undressing is often necessary in hospitals, nursing homes, and other similar institutions where persons are permanently or temporarily in residence. However, help of this kind can also be required in many other situations. For example home care nurses often help people bathe in their own homes. Before the bath, the home care nurse has to help with undressing and after, with dressing. Another example is a swimming pool, where a person needs help to get into or out of their bathing suit.

Helping a person undress or dress their lower body can be especially difficult since clothing articles have to be placed over the feet. Usually a person's weight is supported at least partially by the feet. This requires the helper to lift the legs of the person in order to place clothing articles on the lower body.

As an example, consider the situation where an elderly person has just been given a bath, is sitting on a chair and needs to be helped into his or her clothes . The helper towel dries the upper body and then dresses the person's upper body. The helper then towel dries the person's lower body and places a towel under the person's feet. The helper then helps the person to put on underpants. This requires the helper to first lift the first leg and then lift the second leg. The helper then helps the person to put on pants, again first lifting the first leg and then the second leg. Socks and shoes follow, again requiring lifting of both legs two times. The person is then helped up and the underpants and pants can be pulled up and fastened. The person is now dried and dressed. This has required the helper to lift each leg 5 times, first to dry, then for the underpants, then the pants, then the socks, and then the shoes .

Each time the helper lifts a leg the helper applies stresses to his or her back. Usually the helper's back is twisted which increases the risk for back injuries. In addition, the many lifts are not very pleasant for the person being dressed or undressed. This is especially true for situations where the person has pain in his or her lower body.

Another problem with the above scenario is that while the clothing item is being applied, the helper has to lift a leg at the same time. This means that the helper usually only has one hand available for applying the clothing item. This increases the risk of dropping the clothing item during the procedure. In many cases, such as the current scenario, the floor is wet and dropping the item means that a new item is required. This increases the amount of clothing which needs to be washed. This increases the costs associated with help of this kind.

In addition to this procedure being hard on the helper's body, the procedure is also time consuming. The person being dressed/undressed must endure sitting for a long period of time while he or she is being dressed/undressed. In many cases this can lead to cooling of the person, which is uncomfortable and/or dangerous to the health of the person.

The above procedure is also very repetitive, with the helper required to repeat the same lift over and over again.

Problems as discussed above are also common in other situations. One example of such a situation is when a dressing needs to be applied to or changed on a patient's foot or leg. Again, the helper is forced to hold the leg suspended while the dressing is being applied or changed. In other situations a second helper is required to lift the leg while the first helper applies or changes the bandage.

In some cases, the helper will find a stool or other makeshift support on which the person's legs can be rested during the dressing procedure. It is however not always possible to find a suitable support. For example, suitable waterproof supports are not available in a swimming pool. In other cases, searching for a suitable support is time consuming. In addition, the use of, for example, a chair results in unnecessary wear on the chair.

Another disadvantage with the makeshift supports is that they are usually quite wide, which means that when they are placed under the legs, the piece of leg which protrudes over the end of the support is not very long. This makes it difficult to apply clothing articles. In a preferred situation, at least 10-15cm of leg should protrude past the end of the support. Another disadvantage is that most makeshift supports are not easy to move. There is too much friction between the bottom of the support and the underlying surface. This makes it difficult to move the support out of the way at the end of the procedure. In other cases, supports mounted on castors are available, but these supports move too easily and disrupt the process when they move unexpectedly.

A first aspect of the current invention is to provide a support device as mentioned in the opening paragraph which assists a helper with working on the lower body of a person by giving the helper a well defined and less stressful work environment .

A second aspect of the current invention is to provide a support device as mentioned in the opening paragraph which decreases the amount of lifts a helper needs to perform when working on the lower body of a person.

A third aspect of the current invention is to provide a support device, as mentioned in the opening paragraph, which increases the comfort of a person whose lower body is being worked on.

A fourth aspect of the current invention is to provide a support device, as mentioned in the opening paragraph, which is adjustable to different persons and/or environments.

A fifth aspect of the current invention is to provide a support device, as mentioned in the opening paragraph, where the person's feet and a portion of the lower legs extend over the end of the support device.

A sixth aspect of the current invention is to provide a support device as mentioned in the opening paragraph which provides a stable support during use, while remaining easy to move after its use.

A seventh aspect of the current invention is to provide a support device as mentioned in the opening paragraph which is easy to transport and/or easy to store.

The new and unique way in which the current invention fulfills the above mentioned aspects is by presenting a support device as mentioned in the opening paragraph where the height of each stabilizing support element, with respect to the underlying surface, is independently adjustable. The angular orientation of the support elements and the distance between the support elements could also be adjustable.

In this way, the support device can be adjusted to very many different individuals. This makes the device more comfortable to the person whose legs are being supported. In addition, the support device creates a well-defined work environment for the helper. This reduces the stresses on the helper's body, especially the back, and increases the productivity of the helper.

In a preferred embodiment, the dimension of the stabilizing support elements in the direction transverse to the person's leg can be larger than the dimension parallel to the person's leg. In this way, the amount of lower leg which protrudes past the end of the support element is large enough for the helper to easily put clothes on the lower leg.

In order to make the support device easier to work with, the displacement means can be made lockable, such that the displacement of the support device can be restricted. One example of this is to make the displacement means resist displacement when weight is applied to at least one of the stabilizing support elements. In this way, the support device is easily displaceable when the person's legs are not on the device, but locks in position as soon as the person's legs rest on the device.

To make the device transportable and easy to store, the support device can be made foldable or collapsible.

In another embodiment, the support device can be connected an object which supports a person. For example, the support device can be integrated into the design of a chair or bed.

To avoid unnecessarily large leg movements, the stabilizing support elements can be independently displaceable.

The invention will be explained in greater detail below where further advantageous properties and example embodiments are described with reference to the drawings, in which

Fig. 1 is a schematic representation seen in perspective of a first embodiment of the support device according to the invention,

Fig. 2 is a schematic representation seen in perspective of a second embodiment of the support device according to the invention in a first position, and

Fig. 3 shows the same in a second position.

The first embodiment 1 shown in figure 1 comprises a base module 2 mounted on castors 3 and two independent stabilizing support elements 4. Mounted on the base element 2 are two vertical tubes 5 with a number of through holes 6.

Each of the stabilizing support elements comprises a U-formed pad 7 and a tube 8 that protrudes perpendicularly from the centre of the U-formed pad 7. The U-formed pad 7 is made from a material with good warmth insulation properties so that the contact between the person's skin and the pads 7 is more comfortable.

The tubes 8 of the stabilizing support elements 4 are arranged to fit inside the vertical tubes 5 of the base module 2. The stabilizing support elements 4 can slide within the vertical tubes 5 of the base module 2 such that the height of the stabilizing support' elements 4 with respect to the underlying surface is adjustable. Since each stabilizing support element is arranged in its own tube, the height of each support element 4 is independently adjustable.

A spring-mounted pin 9 is arranged at the lower end of the tube 8 of each of the support elements 4. The pin 9 is arranged perpendicular to the axis of the tube 8. When the tube 8 is inserted in one of the vertical tube 5 of the base module 2, the spring mounted pin 9 protrudes through one of the through holes 6 in the vertical tube 5. When the pin 9 is engaged in one of the through holes 6, the height of the support element is locked. By pressing the pin 9 inwards, the pin 9 disengages from the through hole 6, and the height of the stabilizing support element 4 can be adjusted.

The castors 3 are of the kinds that roll freely when no load is applied to them. As soon as load is applied to the castors, their rolling resistance increases, thereby keeping the support device 1 in place. One way of doing this (not shown) is to mount the wheels on springs. When load is applied, the '> springs compress and the wheel is forced against the housing of the castor. This increases the rolling resistance of the wheels .

In order to illustrate the use of the support device shown in figure 1, the example scenario presented above will be used again. That is to say, an elderly person who has just been bathed is sitting on a chair and needs to be dressed.

The support device 1 is placed in front of and to the side of the person sitting in the chair. In this example, the height of the support elements 4 is adjusted until they approximately match the height of the chair in which the person is sitting. The legs of the person are then lifted up and the support device 1 is inserted under the lower part of the legs, just ahead of the knee joint. The legs are then lowered until they rest on the support elements 4. In this way, the lower part of the legs and the feet extend past the support elements 4. The foot and lower leg can be imagined as a sort of "hook" on which clothing can be placed.

The helper then dries the feet and lower legs. The underwear, pants, socks, and shoes can then be put on. The helper then lifts the legs up, rolls the support device away and places the feet back on the floor. The person is then helped to stand up, the rest of the lower body is towelled dry, and the underwear and pants are pulled up. The person is now dry and dressed. In total, the helper was required to lift each leg twice, once to place the leg on the support element and once to remove the leg from the support element .

In the situation above, the displacement means are castors 3, with spring-mounted wheels, which allow the support device 1 to be freely rolled when there is no load on the support elements 4. As soon as the legs are rested on the support elements 4, the wheels are pressed against the castor's housing and the wheels lock in position. Other forms of locking means could also be imagined. For example, each wheel could be arranged with a manual lock. Once the legs are in place on the support elements, the locks could be manually engaged by pressing on a lever. Many other forms of displacement means could also be imagined. For example, a low cost embodiment could comprise a number of protrusions (not shown) arranged on the bottom of the base module. The protrusions would have a very low friction with respect to the floor. The base module would therefore be easily slideable on the floor. The protrusions could be made from a hard plastic, for example HDPE. In order to increase the displacement resistance when load is applied, the protrusions could be mounted in a flexible material, which compresses when load is applied. In this way, as load is applied, the protrusions retract into the flexible material in which they are embedded. When they retract far enough, the flexible material comes into contact with the underlying surface and the base module is prevented from sliding.

The support device 1 shown in figure 1 can also be used for purposes other than helping a person with dressing or undressing. For example, the support device can be used for only a single leg, when for example, changing a dressing on the foot or lower leg.

For situations where the support device is to be used for persons who . are bedridden, the displacement means could be a simple smooth plate instead of castors. The smooth plate would easily slide on the mattress of a bed. In addition, when weight is applied to the support device, it will be pressed into the mattress, thereby increasing its displacement resistance.

It could also be imagined that the angular positions of the support elements 4 in the above example are adjustable. It could also be imagined that the distance between the vertical tubes 5 of the base module 2 was adjustable. By making the device more adjustable, different patients can be better accommodated. However, in the case of dressing a person, it should be noted that the distance between the legs should not exceed a certain amount, otherwise it will not be possible to put pants on a person since the waist elastic of a pair of pants can only be stretched so far.

In a lower cost embodiment, instead of two independent stabilizing support elements, a single stabilizing support element could be used which is wide enough to support both legs. Then only a single height adjustment mechanism is required. However, adjustment would be quicker since only one adjustment needs to be performed. The support device would also be less expensive and simpler to manufacture.

Figures 2 and 3 show a second embodiment 10 of a support device according to the invention. The support device 10 again comprises a base module 11 and two stabilizing support elements 12. The stabilizing support elements 12 are again comprised of a U-formed pad 13 and a tube 14 that protrudes perpendicularly to the U-formed pad 13. In this embodiment, the tube 14 protrudes from one end of the U-formed pad 13 instead of from the centre of the pad, as was the case in the previous embodiment. The tubes of the stabilizing support elements are inserted into two vertical tubes 15 mounted on the base element. The support elements 12 are rotatable within the vertical tubes about the centre axis of the vertical tubes. Height adjustment means are available but not shown in this embodiment.

In order to illustrate the use of this embodiment 10, the same scenario as discussed above will be used again. That is to say, an elderly person who has just been bathed is sitting on a chair and needs to be dressed.

The support device 10 is placed directly in front of the feet of the person. The support elements 12 are arranged such that they point outwards as shown in figure 3. The helper then lifts the first leg of the person above the height of the support elements 12 and rotates the first support element so that it is under the leg. The helper then lowers the leg onto the support element. The helper then lifts the second leg in the same manner and rotates the second support element under the second leg. The helper then lowers the second leg onto the support element. The support device is now in the position as shown in figure 2.

The helper can then dry the feet and lower legs of the person and apply the underpants, pants, socks, and shoes to the person as described above. The helper then lifts the person's first leg, rotates the support element so that it points out and lowers the person's first foot to the floor. The helper then lifts the second leg, rotates the second support element so that it points out and lowers the person's second foot to the floor.

The procedure is very much the same as with the first embodiment, but in this second embodiment, the helper can put the person's legs on the support device one at a time, without requiring very large movements of the legs. This is especially beneficial for patients with bad hips or other bad joints.

In addition, in the second embodiment 10, the base module 11 must not be moved during the procedure as was required for the first embodiment 1. Instead, only the stabilizing support elements 12 need to be moved. This is due to the two stabilizing support elements 12 being independently displaceable in this embodiment.

The above two embodiments are of course only two of many different possible embodiments. Another embodiment is one made from bent tubing which can be assembled and disassembled such that the support device can be packed very small for easy transportation or stowing. One example of such a tubing construction is a device where the lower part is a triangular frame. By adjusting the base width of the triangular frame, the height of the support element can be easily adjusted. In order to make adjustment easier, the top angle of the frame could be shown on a dial. This would allow the helper to quickly adjust the height of the support element with respect to the dial. Another example is to use a base element that is similar to a small foldable ladder. The stabilizing support elements can in this case be removed from the base element so that the base element can be used as a small ladder.

Other, more inexpensive embodiments could also be imagined where the support device was a single plastic molded component. The overall height of the support device could be adjusted by adding pads of different heights to the support device.

The support device could also be incorporated into the object, which is supporting the person being helped. For example, the support device could be directly incorporated into a chair, which could be used in swimming pools. Another example could be a support device, which was directly incorporated into the design of a hospital bed.

Claims

1. Support device (1;10) for maintaining the feet and lower portion of the legs of a person elevated with respect to an underlying surface, said support device comprising: at least two stabilizing support elements (4;12), one for each leg of the person, and displacement means (3; 14,15) allowing said stabilizing support elements to be displaced mainly parallel to said underlying surface, characterized in that, the height of each stabilizing support element (4,-12), with respect to the underlying surface, is independently adjustable.

2. Support device (10) according to claim 1, characterized in that the angular orientation of each stabilizing support element (12) is independently adjustable.

3. Support device according to claim 1 or 2 , characterized in that the distance between the stabilizing support elements is adjustable.

4. Support device (1;10) according to claim 1, 2 or 3, characterized in that the dimension of the stabilizing support elements (4,-12) in the direction transverse to the person's leg is larger than the dimension parallel to the person's leg.

5. Support device (1) according to any one of claims 1-4, characterized in that the displacement means (3) are lockable, such that the displacement of the support device (1) can be restricted.

6. Support device (1) according to any one of claims 1-5, characterized in that the displacement means (3) resist displacement when weight is applied to at least one of the stabilizing support elements (4) .

7. Support device according to any one of claims 1-6 characterized in that the support device is foldable or collapsible .

8. Support device according to any one of claims 1-7 characterized in that the support device is connected an object which supports a person.

9. Support device (10) according to any one of claims 1-8 characterized in that stabilizing support elements (12) are independently displaceable.

10. Use of a support device (1;10) according to any one of claims 1-9 for assisting a helper who is undressing or dressing the lower body of a person or for assisting a helper who is applying a bandage or changing a bandage on a person's lower body.