Inflatable mattress and control methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11413202-B2
Application number	US-202016898517-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 11, 2020
Priority date	Sep 5, 2012
Publication date	Aug 16, 2022
Grant date	Aug 16, 2022

Abstract

A patient support, such as a mattress, includes a plurality of inflatable bladders. Depth sensors are included in the support that measure the degree of penetration of a patient into the mattress. An air pressure sensor is also included that measures the pressure inside at least one bladder. A suitable inflation level of the mattress is determined by monitoring the rate of change of the depth with respect to air pressure as the bladder is either inflated or deflated. By detecting an inflection point in the graphical relationship of the depth and pressure outputs, a suitable inflation point for the bladders is determined that reduces interface pressures experienced by the patient, yet does not overly sink the patient into the mattress to a degree of discomfort. Analyzing the outputs of the depth and pressure sensors can also be used to detect a patient's heart rate and respiration rate.

First claim

We claim:

1. A patient support comprising:
a patient support surface including an inflatable bladder;
an air pressure sensor adapted to generate air pressure signals indicative of air pressure inside of said inflatable bladder; and
a controller configured to repetitively determine a suitable inflation level for said inflatable bladder for a particular patient positioned thereon based on said air pressure signals, and to re-determine said suitable inflation level based upon at least one triggering event that affects the air pressure inside said inflatable bladder, the triggering event selected from the group consisting of (1) a patient's movement; (2) a person other than the patient sitting on the patient support surface; and (3) an object being placed on the patient support surface.

2. The support of claim 1 , wherein said controller further re-determines the suitable inflation level based on an angular change of the patient support when the angular change exceeds a threshold amount.

3. The support of claim 2 , further comprising an angle sensor or tilt sensor to measure the angle of the one or more portions of the patient support, wherein said controller automatically re-determines the suitable inflation level based on the angle sensor or the tilt sensor.

4. The support of claim 1 , wherein the controller re-determines the suitable inflation level using the weight of the patient.

5. The support of claim 4 , further comprising a sensor to sense the weight of a patient supported on said inflatable bladder, wherein the controller automatically re-determines the suitable inflation level using the sensed weight of the patient.

6. The support of claim 1 , wherein said controller re-determines the suitable inflation level based on the patient's movement.

7. The support of claim 1 wherein said inflatable bladder is positioned at a location adapted to support a patient's sacral area.

8. The support of claim 6 wherein said patient support surface includes:
a plurality of inflatable bladders, said plurality of inflatable bladders including said inflatable bladder;
a plurality of air pressure sensors, each air pressure sensor adapted to generate an air pressure signal indicative of a level of air pressure inside of a corresponding one of said inflatable bladders; and
wherein said controller is adapted to determine the suitable inflation level of two adjacent bladders of said plurality of inflatable bladders based on the air pressure signals of the adjacent bladders.

9. The support of claim 8 wherein said controller is further adapted to control an air pressure inside of one of said two adjacent bladders so as to be offset from or a fixed ratio with respect to the air pressure inside of the other of said two adjacent bladders.

10. The support of claim 1 , further comprising a depth sensor adapted to generate a depth signal indicative of how deeply a patient positioned on said patient support sinks into said inflatable bladder before bottoming out, and said controller further adapted to determine the suitable inflation level of said inflatable bladder based upon readings from said depth sensor.

11. A patient support comprising:
a patient support surface including an inflatable bladder;
an air pressure sensor adapted to generate air pressure signals indicative air pressure inside of said inflatable bladder;
a sensor adapted to generate depth signals indicative of the immersion of a patient into said inflatable bladder before bottoming out; and
a controller adapted to determine a suitable inflation level of said inflatable bladder based upon readings from said air pressure sensor and said depth signals and to re-determine said suitable inflation level based upon said depth signals and said air pressure signals.

12. The support of claim 11 , wherein said patient support surface includes a plurality of inflatable bladders, each inflatable bladder comprising a pod, a first group of said pods defining a first zone, a second group of said pods defining a second zone, and said first zone being independently inflated from said second zone.

13. The support of claim 12 , wherein at least one of said first and second zones is positioned at a location adapted to support a patient's sacral area.

14. The support of claim 12 , further including a plurality of air pressure sensors for generating a plurality of air pressure signals indicative of the air pressure in said pods, wherein said controller determines the suitable inflation level of said pods by monitoring said plurality of air pressure signals.

15. The support of claim 12 , further including a plurality of depth sensors for generating a plurality of depth signals indicative of how deeply a patient positioned on said patient support sinks into said patient support surface wherein said controller determines the suitable inflation level of said pods by monitoring the depth signals with respect to the air pressure signals for each of the pods.

Assignees

• Stryker Corp

Inventors

• Lafleche Patrick
• Bhimavarapu Krishna Sandeep
• Seshadrinathan Manikantan
• Robertson Donna-Marie

Classifications

• A61G2203/40

  for distance · CPC title

• A61B5/0816

  Measuring devices for examining respiratory frequency (measuring frequency of electric signals G01R23/00) · CPC title

• A61G2203/16

  Touchpads · CPC title

• A61G2203/44

  for weight · CPC title

• A61G7/05769 Primary

  with inflatable chambers · CPC title