An Adaptive Cushion for Relieving and Preventing Back Pain

Back pain is one of the most common orthopedic complaints in modern times. While long- term total incapacity due to back pain is relatively rare, work capacity in office environments, as well as in physical labor jobs is impacted.

Seated posture control for people with Spinal Cord Injuries (SCI) is even more important. They are seated throughout the day, which can have devastating long-term consequences. Further, SCI patients already have had a severe spinal injury, often with ramifications to their lower spine. Finally, the loss of muscle control in the lower back area allows spinal misalignment to occur to a much greater degree than for able-bodied individuals.

It is not surprising that a solution to the common problem of back pain might come from a product originally intended for use by the SCI community. From a project that has been more or less dormant for about five years, a treatment and perhaps a preventative measure exists in the prototype stage—the Back Support System™ (BSS). This product is a rigid frame that supports individually adjusting air bladders that act to properly support the spine of the user while seated. While a product such as this has long been needed in the SCI community, otherwise able-bodied people will benefit as well.

Two BSS prototypes are in existence. They comprise the form-shaped main chassis shell with the air bladders fastened to the surface. This ensures an ergonomic fit which provides the only back system that does not apply intra-disk pressure in the spinal disks. Provision was also made to allow variation of the back support angle with respect to the seat. Adjustment of the bladder inflation uses manually actuated pumps and valves.

This product concept is an idea developed by Numotech, Inc., already an Initiative for Proliferation Prevention (IPP) industrial partner for the wheelchair device for prevention of pressure sores, the Active Wheel Chair Seat Cushion. The BSS was developed originally as a companion for the seat cushion and would be able to take advantage of some of the common technologies being refined for the cushion under its own IPP project. These include specialized low power air pumps, electronics, battery boxes, as well as shell and bladder production techniques. This should help offset the less advanced nature of the development of the BSS.

Limited clinical testing has already occurred using the BSS. In an ad hoc early test, a subject with degenerative disk disease drove an automobile with the BSS installed in the driver's seat. With the regular car seat, he could not make it to the state line without experiencing excruciating back pain. With the BSS prototype installed, he was able to drive from California to the east coast and return without reportable pain.

In a much more controlled clinical test series, an assortment of 33 subjects with SCI, multiple sclerosis, scoliosis, lordosis, kyphosis, lateral curvature of the spine, spinal stenosis, degenerative disk disease, and osteoarthritis used the BSS prototype with favorable results. Numotech has ample access to medical facilities for these sorts of tests through their association with doctors at Veteran's Administration hospitals and at UCLA.

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