Movement simulator for simulating walking movements in reclining patients

摘要

Inadequate blood flow through the lower extremities of a venous or arterial kind is the cause of many leg disorders including thrombosis. Doctors recommend fast walking, inter alia, for therapy and prophylaxis. This is impossible for patients confined to bed after operations which are particularly risky for thrombosis. Walking upright may also be painful for patients with advanced leg disorders. The movement simulator produces the natural walking dynamics in the lower extremities while reclining: two calf shells in which the patient's calves are placed are alternately moved via a guide roller and a cam disc such that a slow uniform "upward movement" of the calves alternates with an accelerated "downward movement" which is suddenly stopped and repeated again thereafter. In the horizontal position of the patient the pressure pulse due to the forces of mass inertia on stopping the relative movement has a particularly accelerating effect on the blood flow, so that the range of applications of the simulator extends from prophylaxis of thrombosis via therapy of leg disorders caused by blood flow disturbances to improvement of the microcirculation and neurological intensive care medicine in patients who have to lie down for a prolonged time, quite apart from muscle rehabilitation and the muscle pumping effect on active use of the simulator.