Patent Application
20110009845
This invention relates generally post-operative patient care for a liposuction procedure, and more specifically, a system to ease the recovery process for the patient and to facilitate the containment of fluids excreted by the patient through the operation incision locations.
Liposuction is currently the most popular operation in the field of cosmetic surgery. Every year, about 500,000 liposuction operations are performed in the United States. Several techniques exist to perform the liposuction procedure including dry liposuction and wet liposuction. Wet liposuction, which is the most common procedure, has the advantages of decreasing the bleeding, the bruising, and the need for general anesthetic. The procedure, however, requires the injection of a fluid into the liposuction area. The fluid may then be left inside the body to be reabsorbed by the patient's lymphatic system, but may alternatively be allowed to exit the patient's body over a period of several days post-operation through the incision locations. The exit of the post-liposuction fluid through the incision locations may be preferred because of decreased recovery time and lower chance of the formation of minor complications such as seronoma formation.
During typical post-liposuction recovery, the patient is generally recommended by the physician to wear a compression garment continuously. The compression garment functions to apply pressure around a liposuction area, facilitating the exit of the post-liposuction fluid through the incision location. Because the compression garment is to be worn continuously for several days to several weeks post-operation, the compression garment is generally of an air and fluid permeable elastic material such as nylon to allow the skin of the patient to breathe and to heal and sweat to permeate through the garment. As a result, the post-liposuction fluid exits the patient's body and permeates through the compression garment in an uncontrolled fashion. This may lead to difficulties for the patient as the post-liposuction fluid is excreted uncontrollably and may seep into their clothing, bed, etc, in an undesirable manner. Patients may place absorptive pads inside their compression garment to capture the post-liposuction fluid, but this decreases the breathability of the compression garment and requires the user to remove the compression garment to replace a soiled absorptive pad, causing both an inconvenience and the interruption of the recommended constant pressure on the liposuction area. This invention provides a system and a method to be used post-liposuction to facilitate the capture of the exiting post-liposuction fluid while maintaining the breathability of the compression garment and facilitating the recovery process for the patient.
a and 4b are schematic representations of variations in relative area of the absorptive material and the fluid resistant material of the absorptive garment of the preferred embodiments.
The following description the preferred embodiments of the invention is not intended to limit the invention to these preferred embodiments, but rather to enable any person skilled in the art to make and use this invention.
As shown in
The absorptive garment 110 preferably functions to envelop a portion of the body that includes the liposuction area. In the variation of the system 100 that includes the compression garment 150, the absorptive garment 110 preferably functions to envelop a first portion of the compression garment 150. The system 100 may also include a second absorptive garment that functions to envelop a second portion of the body that may include a second liposuction area or a second incision location or may function to envelop a second portion of the compression garment 150. The first and/or second portion of the compression garment 150 is preferably located at a region on the body that includes the incision location for the liposuction procedure. The first portion of the compression 150 may also include a substantial portion of the total surface area of the compression garment 150. As shown in
The absorptive material 120 is preferably of a material with high absorbency such as high absorbency polymers, allowing the absorptive garment 110 to be relatively thin overall while absorbing and capturing a substantial volume of the post-liposuction fluid. The absorptive material preferably includes a first face that faces the body of the patient and a second face that faces and is coupled to the fluid resistant material 130. In the variation of the system 100 that includes the compression garment 150, the first face of the absorptive material preferably faces the compression garment. The second face is preferably opposite of the first face, and is preferably substantially larger than the remaining faces of the absorptive material 120 to provide a larger surface area to contact the body of the patient. The absorptive material 120 is preferably of uniform thickness to provide even absorptiveness to the portion of the body that the absorptive material 120 is in contact with, but may alternatively be of a non-uniform thickness to potentially provide additional absorptiveness to a particular region of the portion of the body that the absorptive material 120 is in contact with.
The first face of the absorptive material 120 is preferably of a surface area that is substantially identical to the surface area of the portion of the body that contains the liposuction area. In the variation of the system 100 that includes the compression garment 150, the absorptive material 120 is preferably of a surface area substantially identical to the surface area of the compression garment 150. The first face of the absorptive material 120 may alternatively be of a surface area that is smaller than the surface area of the portion of the body that contains the liposuction area or the surface area of the compression garment 150. In this variation, the absorptive material 120 is preferably arranged at a location that includes the incision location to provide absorptiveness to the area where the post-liposuction fluid may exit from the patient. However, any other suitable surface area for the first face of the absorptive material 120 may be used.
The fluid resistant material 130 preferably functions to prevent liquid that has been captured by the absorptive material 120 from escape from the absorptive material 120. The fluid resistant material 130 is preferably also air permeable to allow the skin of the patient to breathe and sweat to evaporate. The fluid resistant material 130 is preferably of a material that substantially prevents the permeation of fluid such as a thin piece of pliable plastic glued or annealed to the second face of the absorptive material 120, a coating applied to the second face of the absorptive material 120 that functions to seal the absorptive material 120, or any other suitable material or method.
The absorptive garment 110 may include a second fluid resistant material that is coupled to the first face of the absorptive material 110. In this variation, the second fluid resistant material functions to allow fluid from the body of the patient to permeate through to the absorptive material, but to discourage fluid that has been captured by the absorptive material to permeate back through to the body of the patient. The second fluid resistant material is preferably of a material that facilitates fluid permeation in one direction and discourages fluid permeation in the opposite direction, such as porous netting that contains geometry to funnel fluid in one direction and to block fluid in the opposite direction.
As shown in
The fastener 140 preferably functions to couple the absorptive garment 110 to the patient and to arrange the absorptive garment to envelop the portion of the body including the liposuction area or to envelop the first portion of the compression garment 150. The fastener 140 is preferably adjustable to accommodate to a variety of patient sizes. The fastener 140 may utilize the geometry of the absorptive garment 110 to maintain the desired arrangement between the absorptive garment 110 and the body and/or the compression garment 150. For example, in the variation wherein the absorptive garment 110 is to accommodate to the thigh, hip, and crotch area as shown in
The fastener 140 is preferably of a type that does not fully seal the absorptive garment 110 around the body of the user. One of the more important aspects of successful recovery is to allow the incision wound and the skin to breathe and dry, otherwise, the chance for infection or other recovery complications is increased. The fastener 140 preferably functions to couple the first portion and the second portion of the fluid resistant material 130 to each other while allowing fluids (such as air, post-liposuction fluid not captured by the absorptive material 120, or sweat) to pass through the interface between the first location and the second location of the fluid resistant material 130.
The compression garment 150 is preferably an elastic material that allows the permeation of fluids (such as air, post-liposuction fluid, and sweat) such as nylon or any other suitable type of material. The elasticity of the material is preferably uniform throughout the material to provide uniform compressive force to the body of the user to facilitate the recovery process. The compression garment 150 may include a first layer and a second layer and the absorptive garment 110 is placed in between the first and second layers. The first layer preferably remains relatively stationary relative to the body of the patient while the second layer may be removed to allow replacement of the absorptive garment 110. This allows the compression garment 150 to maintain compressive force on the body of the patient during the replacement of the absorptive garment 110. In this variation, the second layer of the compression garment 110 may function as the fastener 140. The second layer of the compression garment 110 may include a first portion that remains attached to the first layer during the replacement of the absorptive garment while a second portion is moved relative to the first layer, for example, a flap 152 as shown in
As mentioned above, the absorptive garment 110 may be provided to the patient as an individual component, but may alternatively be provided to the user as a part of a post-operative care kit that includes the absorptive garment 110 and the compression garment 150. In a first example of a usage scenario, the user purchases or is provided compression garment 150 and a set of absorptive garments 110. The user then wears the compression garment 150 over the liposuction area and attaches a first absorptive garment 110 over the compression garment 150 using the fasteners 140. The patient adjusts the fasteners 140 until the absorptive garment 110 is arranged comfortably and in the correct orientation. The absorptive garment 110 is preferably relatively loosely attached to the body to allow for ample breathability through the absorptive garment 110 and the compression garment 150 to the skin. When the first absorptive garment 110 becomes soiled or is worn for a period of time, the patient removes the first absorptive garment 110 and preferably discards the first absorptive garment 110 and wears a second absorptive garment 110 in a manner similar or identical to the manner in which the first absorptive garment 110 was worn. The patient may be instructed to wear the compression garment 150 for 3 to 4 days or for several weeks. The patient is preferably provided with a number of absorptive garments 110 that is substantially equal to the number of days the compression garment 150 is to be worn, allowing the user to exchange a soiled absorptive garment 110 for a fresh absorptive garment 110 every day during the recovery period. The patient may be provided with a number of absorptive garments 110 that is larger than the number of days the compression garment 150 is worn to allow the patient to change absorptive garments 110 more than once a day if an absorptive garment 110 becomes soiled. Alternatively, the number of absorptive garments 110 may be less than the number of days the compression garment 150 is to be worn if the volume of post-liposuction fluid that is excreted is not expected to be of a significant level every day during the recovery period. The kit may also include more than one compression garment 150 in preparation for a first compression garment 150 becoming too soiled or not providing enough compressive force. In a second example of a usage scenario, the absorptive garment 110 may be provided separately from the compression garment 150. The absorptive garment 110 may be purchased or provided as an extra absorptive garment 110 to be used with an existing system already provided to the user, but may alternatively be purchased or provided to be used without a compression garment 150, for example, if the patient is not recommended to wear a compression garment 150 or is no longer required to wear a compression garment 150 but is still concerned about uncontrolled exit of post-liposuction fluid. However, the system 100 may be applied to any other suitable usage scenario.
As a person skilled in the art will recognize from the previous detailed description and from the figures and claims, modifications and changes can be made to the preferred embodiments of the invention without departing from the scope of this invention defined in the following claims.
