Sreemoyee Chatterjee
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Written By: Sreemoyee Chatterjee | Published : September 22, 2018 5:07 PM IST
This smart seat wheelchair will help you avoid painful ulcers © Shutterstock
Are you wheelchair ridden and suffer from painful ulcerscaused due to prolonged sitting on the wheelchair? Rejoice as you will soon be able to avoid these painful sores. Thanks to a group of scientists who came up with a smart seat cushion that prevent painful ulcers among those who are wheelchair bound. These researchers have achieved this smart seat by using changes in air pressure to redistribute body weight, highlights a recent media report. The technology has been developed by researchers from the University of Texas at Arlington in the US.
According to the researchers this technology can also be used to create prosthetic liners that adapt their shape to fit in changes in body volume during the day. This will specifically help patients to avoid skin damage and sores in the residual limb caused due to poor prosthetic fit.
"Pressure ulcers caused by long periods of sitting without relieving pressure at bony regions such as the tailbone, frequently occur in people who spend significant amount of time on wheelchairs. In the case of prosthesis users, poor fitting of the prosthesis leads to pressure injuries for amputees that can severely affect their daily life," reportedly said Muthu Wijesundara, chief research scientist at UTA's Research Institute.
"Our technology improves on existing solutions by including real-time pressure monitoring and automated pressure modulation capabilities to help combat the formation of pressure ulcers or sores," added Wijesundara, according to the media report.
Explaining how the smart seat works, researchers pointed out that a network of sensors creates a pressure map every time a person sits on the cushion and identifies vulnerable areas that require a pressure relief. This data is utilised by automated pressure modulation for reconfiguring the seat cushion surface to offload and redistribute pressure from sensitive areas. On top of that, the seat cushion periodically changes the pressure profile for eliminating pressure build-up over time, said the researchers.
