Patent Publication Number: US-2003229378-A1

Title: Spinal support for reclining persons

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001] The present invention relates to a spinal support for reclining persons and, more particularly, a spinal support suitable for use by persons experiencing low back pain, when sleeping, due to an unstable mid-lumbar spine.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002] Low back pain is one of the most common ailments affecting North American society. Certain conditions of the low back are aggravated by lifting, bending, or twisting movements of the trunk. Other conditions are aggravated by staying in one position for too long. These later conditions are usually ones of excessive movement of spinal segments affecting the stability of the spine. When a person with such a condition remains in one position, it allows an excessively mobile spinal segment to go beyond its anatomical barrier evoking structural injury or inflammation, with accompanying pain. When a person is sleeping, it may require a very painful stimulus to wake the person up, at which point it might be too late; as structural injury or inflammation will have already become well established. Control of the position of the spine during sleep is, therefore, of the utmost importance.  
       [0003] U.S. Pat. No. 5,338,289 (Cooker 1994) discloses a spinal support for reclining persons. The Cooker support has a support portion and a belt portion which joins the ends of the support portion. The two portions combine to encircle the waist of the user, with the support portion covering the majority of the waist&#39;s circumference. The Cooker support is suited for persons with hips that are substantially larger than their waist. Due to anatomical differences between men and women, the majority of persons who fit this description are women. Wider hips in comparison to the waist tends to leave the lumbar spine bent sideways, with the convex side bending downwardly by force of gravity towards the bed. This produces a continuous strain on the spine, especially at the L3-4 and L4-5 levels. The Cooker support fills in that portion of the waist, thereby reducing or eliminating the curvature of the spine.  
       [0004] Women who have large hips also tend to have a greater than average “lordosis”, which is a concavity in the curvature of the lumbar spine. This increased lordosis is symptom provoking in itself. In the case of a back sleeper, the Cooker support would force an increased lordotic angle, because of the padding pressing upwards against the mid-lumbar spine. This would tend to exacerbate the problem.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0005] What is required is a spinal support for reclining persons having an unstable mid-lumbar spine.  
       [0006] According to the present invention there is provided a spinal support for reclining persons which includes a girdle adapted to encircle a waist of a person. The girdle has a right side lumbar support with a symmetrical body adapted to prevent sagging of a lumbar spine of a wearer when lying on his or her right side and a left side lumbar support with a symmetrical body adapted to prevent sagging of the lumbar spine of the wearer when lying on his or her left side. The left side lumbar support is positioned in opposed relation to the right side lumbar support with an unpadded connective webbing extending between the right side lumbar support and the left side lumbar support.  
       [0007] The above described spinal support provides right side and left side support. As the wearer changes position during the night from sleeping on ones side to sleeping on ones back, the present spinal support does not force an increase in the lordotic angle of the wearer lying on their back.  
     
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
     [0008] These and other features of the invention will become more apparent from the following description in which reference is made to the appended drawings, the drawings are for the purpose of illustration only and are not intended to in any way limit the scope of the invention to the particular embodiment or embodiments shown, wherein:  
     [0009]FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a spinal support constructed in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.  
     [0010]FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the spinal support illustrated in FIG. 1, when laid flat.  
     [0011]FIG. 3 is a side elevation view, in section, of a person laying on their side without any spinal support.  
     [0012]FIG. 4 is a side elevation view, in section, of a person laying on their side wearing the spinal support illustrated in FIG. 1.  
     [0013]FIG. 5 labelled as “PRIOR ART” is a side elevation view of a person laying on their back with a spinal support constructed in accordance with the teachings of Cooker.  
     [0014]FIG. 6 is a side elevation view, in section, of a person laying on their back wearing the spinal support illustrated in FIG. 1. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
     [0015] The preferred embodiment, a spinal support for reclining persons generally identified by reference numeral  10 , will now be described with-reference to FIGS. 1 through 6.  
     [0016] Structure and Relationship of Parts:  
     [0017] Referring to FIG. 1, spinal support  10  includes a girdle  12  adapted to encircle a waist generally referenced by numeral  14 , of a person  16 . Referring to FIG. 4, girdle  12  has a right side lumbar support  18  with a symmetrical body  20  adapted to prevent sagging of a lumbar spine  22  of a wearer  16  when lying on his or her right side  24  and a left side lumbar support  26  with a symmetrical body  28  adapted to prevent sagging of lumbar spine  22  of wearer  16  when lying on his or her left side  30 . Left side lumbar support  18  is positioned in opposed relation to right side lumbar support  26  with an unpadded connective webbing  30  that extends between right side lumbar support  26  and left side lumbar support  18 . Referring to FIG. 2, mating velcro strips  32  are provided for securing spinal support  10  around waist  14  of person  16 .  
     [0018] Operation:  
     [0019] The use and operation of spinal support generally referenced by numeral  10 , will now be described with reference to FIGS. 1 through 6. Referring to FIG. 5, there is illustrated person  16  laying on their back  34  with a spinal support  36  from the prior art. As illustrated, prior art spinal support  36  has a padded lumbar support  38  which encircles waist  14  of wearer  16 . Padded lumbar support  38  has underpadding  40  that is positioned on back  34  of person  16 , and as such tends to further increase the concavity in the curvature of lumbar spine  22  illustrated in FIG. 3, when wearer  16  is laying on their back  34 . Referring to FIG. 6, in contrast, spinal support  10  allows for person  16  to lay on their back  34 , without further increase to concavity in curvature of lumbar spine  22  illustrated in FIG. 3. Referring to FIG. 2, this is because with spinal support  10 , left side lumbar support  18  is positioned in opposed relation to right side lumbar support  26  with an unpadded connective webbing  30  that extends between right side lumbar support  26  and left side lumbar support  18 . Referring to FIG. 6, when wearer  16  is laying on their back  34 , they are laying on only unpadded connective webbing  30 . Wearer  16  is also able to place a stack of pillows  42  under their knees  44  to reduce the lordosis and keep lumbar spine  22  illustrated in FIG. 3, in a more neutral position. The stack of pillows  42  will, of course, only stay in place as long as wearer  16  remains on her back  34 .  
     [0020] Left side lumbar support  18  and right side lumbar support  26  can be filled with any suitable material, such as foam, wheat or cotton padding.  
     [0021] In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be one and only one of the elements.  
     [0022] It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that modifications may be made to the illustrated embodiment without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as hereinafter defined in the claims.