Patent ID: 6494852
Filing Date: 2002-12-17
Classification: A61F,A61H

Abstract:
An automatic portable ambulant system for applying pressure to a body limb comprising:a sleeve including first and second inflatable cells, each of the first and second cells including at least three intra-cell compartments; said intra-cell compartments being confluent, each compartment being elongated along a longitudinal axis and being substantially rectangular in shape when deflated and substantially cylindrical in shape when inflated, the longitudinal axes of the compartments being adapted to substantially align with a primary axis of a body limb, the first and second cells being longitudinally adjacent to each other and being adapted to be arranged coaxially with respect to a primary axis of a body limb, the first and second cells being intermittently inflatable to apply pressure to a body limb, wherein each inflatable cell comprises inner and outer shells of durable flexible material; said inner and outer shells being bonded together to form a perimetric cell bond, said perimetric bond defining outer boundaries of an inflatable cell and boundaries between the inflatable cells, said inner and outer shells being further bonded together to form compartmental bonds, said compartmental bonds defining boundaries between intra-cell compartments, wherein the perimetric cell bond includes upper and lower perimetric cell bonds extending substantially in a lateral direction, and left and right perimetric cell bonds extending substantially in the longitudinal direction, and wherein the compartmental bonds partly extend between the upper and lower perimetric cell bonds, wherein the compartmental bonds include perforations to allow for confluent air flow between intra-cell compartments within a cell, the first cell becoming circumferentially constricted when the first cell is inflated, the second cell becoming circumferentially constricted when the second cell is inflated, the first and second cells being non-confluent such that the first and second cells are separately inflatable, said intra-cell compartments of the first and second cells being interdigitated; means for laterally coupling the outermost intra-cell compartments within a cell so as to form a sleeve, the sleeve has a circumference of N&pgr;r when the cell is deflated, and the sleeve has a circumference of 2Nr when the cell is inflated, where N is the number of intra-cell compartments within the cell, and where r is the cross-sectional radius of each intra-cell compartment when inflated, so as to provide for circumferential constriction; a portable hand-held pump unit for intermittently inflating any one or more selected cells of the sleeve via a conduit, said pump unit including a control unit for determining the sequence of cell inflation and deflation.