United States Manufacturing Company, Inc.

George P Irons

Ted J Greene

A cervical collar has a mandibular plate for supporting a patient's chin, an occipital plate for supporting the occipital region of the patient's head, flexible front and rear neck supports extending around the opposite sides of the patient's neck from the mandibular support plate and the occipital support plate, and releasable fastening means on the front and rear supports for providing circumferential support around the patient's neck. A sternal plate rests on the patient's sternum, a scapular plate on the scapular region of the patient's back, and lower front and rear flexible shoulder supports extend over the right and left shoulders of the patient. Releasable fastening means adjust the circumferential size of the shoulder supports. An elongated rigid front support bar extends from the mandibular plate to the sternal plate. Cooperating fasteners on the front support bar and on the sternal plate releasably adjust the height of the mandibular plate independently of the the sternal plate. An elongated rigid rear support bar extends from the occipital plate to the scapular plate. Cooperating fasteners on the rear support bar and on the scapular plate releasably adjust the height of the occipital plate independently of the scapular plate. The fastening means for the mandibular support and the occipital support resist downward pressures and any twisting forces normally encountered during use of the cervical collar to provide a stable means of immobilizing the patient's head and upper cervical spine region during use.

Cervical collar with circumferential and vertical height adjustability

A knee brace comprises generally U-shaped semi-rigid upper and lower cuffs for extending around the upper and lower leg above and below the knee joint; two pairs of upper and lower support arms extending downwardly and upwardly, respectively, from the upper and lower cuff along opposite sides of the patient's leg; and hinges for pivoting the upper support arms to the lower support arms adjacent lateral and medial sides of the knee joint. The upper and lower cuffs encircle the upper and lower legs above and below the knee joint when the brace is fastened to the leg by upper and lower straps located on the brace remote from the knee joint. The upper cuff has downwardly projecting and inwardly movable leg gripping members for contact with the lateral and medial sides of the upper leg immediately above the bony prominences at the lateral and medial sides of the knee joint. An elastic strap attached to the medial leg gripping member of the upper cuff can be tensioned by wrapping the strap behind the leg and around the rigid support arm on the opposite side of the brace and then using the rigid arm for leverage to tension the strap to pull the medial leg gripping member of the upper cuff into pressure contact with the medial side of the upper leg immediately above the knee joint. This produces a wedging action that suspends the brace on the upper leg. The lower cuff has similar upwardly projecting freely bendable leg gripping members and an elastic strap for similarly applying inward pressure to opposite sides of the leg immediately below the knee joint. The upper and lower cuffs are held in intimate contact for a long length of the upper and lower leg, and this in combination with the wedging action of the upper cuff and the firm contact of the lower cuff above and below the knee joint prevents rotation and downward slipping of the knee brace during use.

Knee orthosis with leg stabilizing means

A composite orthosis immobilizes an injured joint such as the ankle, wrist, elbow or knee joint. Generally, the orthosis has lateral and medial support members extending along opposite sides of a limb adjacent the injured joint, a brace secured to the limb on the opposite side of the injured joint, and pivot means hinging the lateral and medial support members to the brace. In one form of the invention, an ankle brace is provided by lateral and medial support members extending along lateral and medial sides of the lower leg above the ankle, a shell which fits around the foot, and a separate pivot for hinging each support member to the shell in the vicinity of the ankle axis of rotation. With the user's foot in the shell and the support members extending alongside the lateral and medial sides of the lower leg, a bandage is wrapped tightly around the support members above the ankle joint for tightly securing the lateral support members to the sides of the lower leg above the ankle joint. This immobilizes the ankle joint against lateral and medial movement and provides limited resistance against torsion while allowing forward and backward rotation about the ankle joint.

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West Covina, CA, United States of America

George P Irons