The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 09, 2000
Filed:
Mar. 24, 1998
Charles Palmer, Hummelstown, PA (US);
The Penn State Research Foundation, University Park, PA (US);
Abstract
A chest brace apparatus prevents the chest wall from buckling inwards during spontaneous breathing efforts and provides negative distending intra-thoracic pressure to a patient. The apparatus includes a protective adhesive layer placed on the patients skin and a brace structure that is designed to attach to the adhesive layer. The adhesive layer has an inner surface and an outer surface, the inner surface adapted to adhere to a chest region of the patient and the outer surface manifesting an outer adherent layer for attachment to the brace structure. The brace structure is placed about the patient's chest region and includes a frontal segment with a patient-side adherent layer for joinder to the outer surface of the adhesive layer, and movement devices connected to the frontal resilient segment for imparting an outward flexure thereof so as to distend the patient's chest region by outward pressure exerted on the adhesive layer. A fluidically operated extension device can be connected to the frontal segment for control of distension thereof in response to a control action. The brace structure is further adapted to enable manual distension or compression of the thoracic contents.