Patent Application
20190336330
The present invention relates generally to medical devices, and more particularly, to a head-cooling cap that can be placed on a person's head to cool the person's head and thus help reducing swelling caused by any head injury.
Head injuries are injuries that result in trauma to the scalp, skull, or brain. Head injuries generally fall into two categories: external injuries and internal injuries. External injuries usually involve the scalp while internal injuries may involve the skull, the blood vessels within the skull, or the brain. Head injuries can be caused by a variety of reasons including, for example, slip and falls, traffic accidents, physical assaults, accidents at home, work, outdoors or while playing sports.
Most head injuries are minor because the skull protects the brain. However, traumatic head injuries, especially sport related head injuries, can be a major cause of disability or even death. Sport related head injuries may be caused by, for example, blows received by a boxer during a boxing match or hits and collisions received by a football player during a football game.
All head injuries may cause swelling or edema, which may increase the pressure inside the skull and cause the brain to compress against the skull. This pressure and compression could reduce or cut off the blood and oxygen supply to the brain, which when untreated or not treated timely could lead to permanent brain damage or death.
There are several treatments for brain edema. The goal of all the treatments is to help the brain receiving enough blood and oxygen to remain healthy while the swelling is relieved and the underlying causes are treated. However, most of the treatments, such as oxygen therapy, IV fluids, medication, ventriculostomy, and surgery, require attending hospital facilities or at least receiving adequate professional care, which are typically not available immediately after an injury.
Hypothermia, which refers to lowering body temperature to below what is normally required, helps relieve swelling and allows the brain to heal. Although general hypothermia may be difficult to perform correctly and may potentially be dangerous, localized hypothermia to the area where an injury occurred can help to control swelling caused by trauma and the rate of blood circulation to the brain.
Normally, localized hypothermia is achieved by applying ice onto the injured body part. The ice is generally concealed inside a bag or cloth to prevent ice burning of the skin. As those skilled in the art have experienced, in dependence of the body part and/or the situation in which ice needs to be applied, handling ice can result extremely inconvenient and cumbersome. For instance, it is particularly difficult to apply ice to a person's head, as the ice bag or ice-holding cloth often slips towards the person's face and ears, causing discomfort and strongly interfering with the person's eyesight, hearing or breathing.
Accordingly, there is an established need for a convenient and effective head-cooling cap that can be placed on a person's head immediately after a head injury to cool the person's head and thus help reducing swelling caused by trauma.
The present invention is directed to a convenient and effective head-cooling cap that can be placed on a person's head immediately after a head injury and that is capable of cooling the person's head to help controlling swelling caused by trauma (such as blows received when practicing or competing in boxing or other active sports) and thus maintaining blood and oxygen supply to the brain. The cap can be rapidly and conveniently fit onto and removed from the person's head, causing no discomfort to the user. For instance, a boxer could wear the head-cooling cap for brief periods of time between rounds, and control swelling caused by blows to the head received during the rounds. The head-cooling cap could also be used in hospitals, emergency rooms, or ambulances to rapidly cover a patient's head in the event of head trauma and swelling.
The head-cooling cap is formed of several flexible, plastic portions, integrally formed with one another, or attached to each other by stitching, heat welding, or other applicable fasteners. The portions can include inner cavities housing a cooling or freezing substance, such as a cooling or refrigerant gel or liquid. In order to prepare the cap for use, the cap can be stored at freezing or cold temperatures for a sufficient amount of time to cause the cooling or refrigerant substance to become adequately cold or frozen. The cap is then placed on a user's head in order to reduce swelling and/or pain. For instance, wearing the cap for brief periods of time will allow an athlete who has received blows to the head to immediately keep down swelling and assist blood flow. The cap can be manufactured in different shapes and sizes for users to choose from. Alternatively, the cap can be made adjustable so as to adapt to different shapes and sizes of heads.
In a first implementation of the invention, a head-cooling cap for controlling swelling caused by any head injury comprises a flexible main body configured to present a cap shape for fitting onto a user's head, said main body comprising a plurality of cooling elements, each cooling element of the plurality of cooling elements comprising a cooling substance housed within an inner cavity of the main body.
In a second aspect, the inner cavity of each cooling element can be formed between two layers of flexible material that form the flexible main body.
In another aspect, the main body can include a concave top portion comprising at least one cooling element of the plurality of cooling elements, and a side portion extending from a bottom end of the concave top portion, the side portion comprising at least one cooling element of the plurality of cooling elements. Thus, the cap not only cools the top half of the head, but can also cool any one of the neck and one or both the ears, in dependence of the extension of the side portion. For instance, the side portion can include two opposed ear portions for covering a user's ear, each ear portion comprising at least one respective cooling element of the plurality of cooling elements. Each ear portion can optionally include a through hole configured to be arranged in registration with an opening of an ear canal of a user wearing the head-cooling cap, to facilitate a user's hearing while wearing the head-cooling cap. To maximize cooling of the ears, each ear portion can include a respective cooling element partially or fully surrounding the through hole. Alternatively or additionally, the side portion can include a neck portion for covering a back of a neck of a user, the neck portion comprising at least one cooling element.
In another aspect, the head-cooling cap includes at least one elastic adjuster to adjustably fit the flexible main body to a user's head, allowing the device to be used by users of all ages and head sizes. For instance, the elastic adjuster can extend along the neck portion and ear portions. Preferably, the elastic adjuster is arranged above the neck portion and ear portions.
In another aspect, the main body can be permanently formed in the cap shape. For instance, the main body can include several separate body portions connected together by at least one of stitching and welding to form the cap shape.
In another aspect, the main body can include a flexible front portion, a flexible rear portion, and opposed flexible lateral portions, the front, rear and lateral portions respectively comprising at least cooling element of the plurality of cooling elements. The front, rear and lateral portions extend at a proximal end thereof from a crown portion, the front, rear and lateral portions being selectively deformable to adopt different configurations. In a first, flat configuration, the front, rear and lateral portions extend radially from the crown portion, facilitating storage, transportation and packaging of the head-cooling cap. In a second configuration, the front, rear and lateral portions are curved inward to form a cap shape for fitting onto a user's head. Ear portions can be provided at respective distal ends of the lateral portions. Alternatively or additionally, a neck portion can be provided at a distal end of the rear portion. The head-cooling cap further comprises at least one fastener for retaining the front, rear and lateral portions in the second configuration. The at least one fastener can include two straps extending from the rear portion, the straps being disconnectably attachable to the front portion. Preferably, the straps extend from opposite ends of a distal section of the rear portion and are disconnectably attachable to a distal section of the front portion.
These and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent from the attached drawings and the detailed description of the preferred embodiments, which follow.
The preferred embodiments of the invention will hereinafter be described in conjunction with the appended drawings provided to illustrate and not to limit the invention, where like designations denote like elements, and in which:
Like reference numerals refer to like parts throughout the several views of the drawings.
The following detailed description is merely exemplary in nature and is not intended to limit the described embodiments or the application and uses of the described embodiments. As used herein, the word “exemplary” or “illustrative” means “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any implementation described herein as “exemplary” or “illustrative” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other implementations. All of the implementations described below are exemplary implementations provided to enable persons skilled in the art to make or use the embodiments of the disclosure and are not intended to limit the scope of the disclosure, which is defined by the claims. For purposes of description herein, the terms “upper”, “lower”, “left”, “rear”, “right”, “front”, “vertical”, “horizontal”, and derivatives thereof shall relate to the invention as oriented in
Shown throughout the figures, the present invention is directed toward a convenient and effective head-cooling cap that can be placed on a person's head immediately after a head injury to cool the person's head and thus help controlling swelling caused by the head injury.
Referring initially to
The main body 110 further comprises a plurality of internal cavities formed within the main body 110, such as between two layers of flexible plastic forming the main body 110. Each internal cavity houses a cooling or refrigerating liquid or gel (hereinafter referred to as cooling substance). The cooling substance contained in each internal cavity forms a cooling element. The number and/or specific arrangement of the cooling elements can be selected based on the shape, size and desired cooling effect of the head-cooling cap 100. For instance, the present embodiment includes several top cooling elements 122 within the top portion 120, a rear side cooling element 132 within the rear portion 130 and one ear cooling element 142 within each ear portion 140. Alternative embodiments are contemplated in which the number of cooling elements comprised in each one of the top portion 120, the rear portion 130 and the ear portions 140 may vary.
The illustration of
In order not to block the hearing of a user, each ear cooling element 142 can be formed partially or fully surrounding a through hole 144 formed in the ear portion 140; for instance, each ear portion 140 of the head-cooling cap 100 of the embodiment includes only one ear cooling element 142 fully surrounding the respective through hole 144. The through hole 144 is configured to transversely align (i.e. be arranged in transverse registration) with a user's ear canal opening when wearing the head-cooling cap 100. The head-cooling cap 100 can be manufactured in different shapes and sizes for users to choose from. Alternatively, the head-cooling cap 100 can be made adjustable so as to adapt to different shapes and sizes of heads.
Referring now to
It is contemplated that the main body 110 can be integrally formed, as in the present embodiment, or formed of different parts attached to each other such as by stitching, heat welding, or removably (disconnectably) attachable fasteners such as hook-and-loop fasteners, snap fasteners, or the like.
The head-cooling cap 100 can include at least one elastic adjuster 150 to provide adjustment to the user's head 300. The elastic adjuster 150 of the present embodiment is arranged along the side portion 130, extending along the neck portion 138 and above the opposite ear portions 140. The elastic adjuster 150 can take the form, for instance, of an elastic band embedded within the flexible plastic materials forming the head-cooling cap main body 110.
Referring now to
The head-cooling cap 200 of the present embodiment can be deformed from the flat configuration shown in
The head-cooling cap 200 can be kept in the three-dimensional configuration of FIG. 8 by disconnectably connectable fasteners, such as hook-and-loop fasteners, snap fasteners, or the like. Specifically, the rear portion 240 of the head-cooling cap 200 includes a pair of rear attachment straps 248, each having a strip of hooks 249 formed at an end thereof. The front portion 220 is formed with a strip of loops 226. The strips of hooks 249 and the strip of loop 226 together form the hook-and-loop fasteners that keep the cooling cap 200 in the three-dimensional format. In addition, as shown, the strip of loops 226 extend generally across the entire front portion 220, along the user's forehead; such arrangement allows the strips of hooks 249 to be attached to variable positions along the strip of loops 226 and thus provide for snug adjustment of the head-cooling cap 200 onto the user's head. The lateral portions 260, 280 of the present embodiment further include respective eyelets 266, 286 for the passing of the rear attachment straps 248 therethrough, contributing to keep the straps attached in place and to maintain the three-dimensional cap shape while the cap is placed on the user's head.
Since many modifications, variations, and changes in detail can be made to the described preferred embodiments of the invention, it is intended that all matters in the foregoing description and shown in the accompanying drawings be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense. Thus, the scope of the invention should be determined by the appended claims and their legal equivalents.
This application claims the benefit of co-pending U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/077,430, filed Nov. 10, 2015, which is incorporated herein in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62077430 | Nov 2014 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 14937045 | Nov 2015 | US |
| Child | 16501977 | US |
