EDMONTON – A new technology to prevent bed sores in patients confined to a bed or in wheelchairs is being tested in Alberta hospitals.
Smart-e-Pants custom undergarments stimulate the backside muscles of people with spinal cord injuries or who have had a stroke.
It sends an electrical current intermittently to jumpstart nerves and muscles that may lose feeling after sitting for long periods.
“It goes for 10 seconds every 10 min,” says Landon Catt, who lost the use of his legs last July and used the Smart E-pants in his rehabilitation. “I’s just a little bit of relief, kind of like how you’d move yourself around in a chair, that’s what it did for me.”
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The hope is that mimicking normal movements will help prevent bed sores that can cause infections and severe discomfort.
“These sores actually start from deep inside, and work their way out,” says Catt, “By the time you see them on the surface you’ve got a sore all the way from the bone all the way out. At that point you pretty much need surgery, or at least have to stay off that area for months, so it’s a very scary thing, and very bad to get obviously.”
Experts in rehabilitation medicine and at least five other disciplines, including neuroscience, worked together at the University of Alberta to develop Smart-e-Pants.
Smart-e-Pants stands for Sensory Motor Adaptive Rehabilitation Technology.
The research was funded by Alberta Innovates Health Solutions, with support from Alberta Health and Wellness.
With files from The Canadian Press
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