WO2005077315A1

WO2005077315A1 - Spinal board with integrated head immobilizer

Info

Publication number: WO2005077315A1
Application number: PCT/IT2004/000405
Authority: WO
Inventors: Massimo Bollanti
Original assignee: Nts Nuove Tecnologie Sanitarie S.R.L.
Priority date: 2004-02-12
Filing date: 2004-07-23
Publication date: 2005-08-25
Also published as: ITRM20040077A1

Abstract

A spinal board characterized in that it includes a system for immobilizing the head consisting of a couple of spaced apart walls (4) embodied in the spinal board (2) and able to pass by a rotation of 90° from a horizontal rest position in which they are flush with the bearing plane of the spinal board to a vertical operating position parallel to the longitudinal plane in which they come out of the board and are able to receive the patient’s head between them preventing the same from carrying out any movement. A means is also provided to adjust the distance between said walls in the operating position. The spinal board is further provided at its rear portion with a recessed room to contain the belt for immobilizing the patient’s body and the chin rest to block the patient’s head.

Description

Spinal board with integrated head immobilizer

The present invention relates to a spinal board provided with an immobilizing system of the patient's head that unlike the known systems is able to pass from a rest position in which it can be folded into the thickness of the board to an operating position in which it comes out of the board to cancel the kinetic force components applied to the patient's head. As known, spinal boards are used upon transportation of a patient having a suspected lesion of the backbone so that the latter must be immobilized. Moreover, also the head of all patients having a suspected craniocervical trauma must be immobilized. Any stress applied to the head for any reason would also be absorbed by the cervical articulation and the cranial structure too. To this end, boards of hard material (plastics, composite, multilayered wood) are usually provided with a plurality of slots for receiving a head immobilizer as well as body and leg fastening belts. A head immobilizer is a support with anatomic shape that like any immobilizer has the • function to cause the articulated parts of the patient's body to act as only one rigid mass. Its construction and the fastening means should cancel all components of any motion to any direction. The action of most widespread systems is to cancel the forces applied to the head by means of masses anchored to the immobilizing support or spinal board. The head immobilizer can be normally adapted to different anatomic boards and is assembled by the operators to the board receiving the patient only upon operation. As the balance position of the supine patient's head is an unstable condition, the head immobilizer should allow a stable balance position, i.e. resistant to any stress, to be reached by the least number of manipulations.

Although a lot of different boards and head immobilizers are available on the market today, the requirement of finding alternative solutions is particularly strong as the head immobilizer should be arranged and fastened in situ before immobilizing the patient, thus wasting valuable time. Another drawback is that the anatomic supports used as head immobilizers are cumbersome objects that prevent (when the head immobilizer is assembled/arranged) the spinal board from being inserted into its housing such as the storage room under the litter extracted from the rear doors of an ambulance.

The present invention seeks to overcome such drawbacks by providing a spinal board in which the head immobilizer is embodied and ready to be brought to an operating position by fast manipulations. This has been accomplished by resorting to two protection walls spaced apart from each other and housed in suitable seats in the spinal board and able to rotate by 90° from a horizontal rest position in which they are built-in and flush with the surface of such spinal board to a vertical operating position in which they are perpendicular to the spinal board and parallel to its longitudinal axis to receive the patient's head between each other and to cancel the kinetic force components applied thereto. According to another advantageous feature of the invention, the distance of these protection side walls from each other is adjustable so as to match the different dimensions of the patients' heads. To this end, a means is provided causing such walls to approach to and to move away from each other across their housing seats in parallel operating positions. According to a further advantageous feature of the invention, the spinal board has a recess in its rear portion to receive the patient immobilizing belt as well as the chin rest to block the head in addition to the integrated head immobilizer.

Further advantages and features of the invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 shows a perspective view of a spinal board provided with embodied head immobilizer according to the invention;

Fig. 2 is a detail of the head immobilizer carried in working position;

Fig. 3 shows the same detail as fig. 2 where the different positions of the two walls of the head immobilizer are shown in broken lines;

Fig. 4 is a sectioned view of the spinal board showing the extraction movement of the two walls of the head immobilizer from their housings;

Fig. 5 is a top plan view of another embodiment of the spinal board in which the two walls of the head immobilizer are rigidly connected to an additional support plane housed in a suitable recess in the front portion of the same board, and the belts for the patient and the chin rest are contained in a second recess;

Figure 5A is a partially sectioned view along a longitudinal, vertical plane of the second embodiment of the spinal board of fig. 5 during its use;

Figures 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 show the sequence of the extraction steps of the head immobilizer from the housing recess and the adjusting steps of the two walls by their sliding along the slotted seats formed in the additional support plane of the head immobilizer.

With reference to figures 1-4, a spinal board 2 according to the present invention is characterized by a couple of protection walls 4 which are embodied inside corresponding housing seats 6 formed in the thickness of the spinal board. In their resting positions (see fig. 1) such walls do not break the continuity of the bearing plane of the board as they fold away into their seats. By rotating them by 90°, as shown in fig. 4 by broken lines, the two walls 4 are vertically disposed parallel to the longitudinal axis. The distance between the two walls 4 is adjustable by that their rotation supports can be adjusted along suitable slotted guides formed in the sides 8 of the housing seat 6.

Advantageously, the spinal board is moulded in a plastic material such as polyethylene in one piece washable with water under pressure and 100%- transparent to X-rays to allow a preliminary diagnostics as well as it is provided with holes to drain washing water.

The present invention has been described according to a preferred embodiment thereof, however, it is self- evident that a number of variations and changes can be made by those skilled in the art by applying the same technical teachings on which the invention is based without departing from the scope of the invention. For example, a foldaway head immobilizer of the above- mentioned type able to be releasably fastened to the spinal board available on the market today can be provided. Or a subassembly consisting of a block removable from the spinal board and including the head immobilizer can also be provided. This solution allows a quick removal and replacement of the head immobilizer as well as helps disinfection and washing. A variation of this type of head immobilizer is shown in figs. 5 and 5A. In this case the two walls 4 are connected to an additional support panel 10 which lays in a housing recess 12 under rest conditions and does not break the continuity of the bearing plane of the spinal board as it is blocked in situ by two tabs 14. The lateral position of the two walls is adjustable. To this end, such walls are guided to slide along slots 16 formed in the support panel 10. In order to bring the head immobilizer to operating conditions according to the sequence illustrated in figs, β to 10, it is unlocked by shifting tabs 14 to the opening position, panel 10 is overturned, blocked in such position, which is the position of use, by shifting tabs 14 to the closure position again, as shown in fig. 7, and both walls 4 of the head immobilizer are caused to slide towards the patient's head while they are still inclined, as shown in fig. 8, and their lateral position is shifted until they come into contact with the patient's head. At this time, the two walls 4 are rotated to the vertical position and blocked in this position, for example, by means of a known (not shown) friction system. It should be appreciated that the safety tabs 14 are disposed at both sides of the head immobilizer to ensure the total transparency in case the patient is subjected to X-rays.

According to a further feature the illustrated variation has a rear housing room 18 where the belt to fasten the patient to the board is placed.

Claims

1. A spinal board characterized in that it includes a device for immobilizing the head, i.e. a head immobilizer, able to pass from a rest position in which it is foldable into the thickness of the board to an operating position in which it comes out of the board to cancel the kinetic force components applied to the patient's head.

2. The spinal board according to claim 1, characterized in that said head immobilizer includes a couple of protection walls (4) which are embodied inside corresponding housing seats (6) formed in the thickness of the spinal board (2).

3. The spinal board according to claim 2, characterized in that walls (4) do not break the continuity of the bearing plane of the board (2) in their resting positions.

4. The spinal board according to claim 2, characterized in that by rotating the two walls (4) by 90°, they are vertically disposed perpendicular to the bearing plane and parallel to the longitudinal axis of the spinal board (2) .

5. The spinal board according to claim 2, characterized in that a means is provided to adjust the distance between the two walls (4) so as to match the head immobilizer to the different dimensions of the patients' heads.

6. The spinal board according to claim 4, characterized in that the distance between the two walls is adjustable by that their rotation supports are caused to slide along suitable slotted guides formed in sides (8) of the housing seat (6).

7. The spinal board with integrated head immobilizer according to claim 1, characterized in that said head immobilizer is removable and includes an additional support panel (10) to which two protection walls (4) are slidably connected, said support panel (10) laying in a housing recess (12) of the spinal board under rest conditions and does not break the continuity of the bearing plane of the spinal board as it conceals the two underlying protection walls (4).

8. The spinal board with integrated head immobilizer according to the preceding claim, characterized in that said additional support panel (10) is brought to the position of use by overturning it by 180° crosswise to the longitudinal axis of the spinal board.

9. The spinal board with integrated head immobilizer according to claims 7 and 8, characterized in that means (14) is provided to lock and to unlock the additional support panel (10) with respect to its housing recess (12) .

10. The spinal board with integrated head immobilizer according to claims 7 to 9, characterized in that oncepanel (10) is overturned, it is blocked in such position which is the position of use by shifting said means (14) to the closure position, and both protection walls (4) are adjusted in their lateral position by causing them to slide towards the patient's head while being still inclined until they come into contact with the patient's head.

11. The spinal board with integrated head immobilizer according to the preceding claim, characterized in that the two walls (4) are rotated to the vertical position and blocked in this position by means of a friction system of the known type.

12. A foldaway head immobilizer comprising a couple of protection walls (4) which are embodied inside corresponding housing seats (6) and are able to pass from a rest position in which they can be folded away into the thickness of the head immobilizer to an operating position in which it comes out of the head immobilizer to block the movements of the patient's head, said head immobilizer being able to be secured to the spinal board available on the market.