Therapeutic Device for the Relief of Coughing Symptoms

Abstract

A support device for the non-invasive draining of mucus to provide therapeutic relief from coughing symptoms, particularly in those whose natural exhalation and natural coughing ability are impaired, and a method for its use is disclosed. The device being low-cost enough to be suitable for either in-home or disposable clinical use. Also disclosed is the ability to incorporate the device into an automated positioning system, which would allow a user to increase alignment resolution and repeatability.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a device and a method of its use to alleviate the symptoms of a chronic cough.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Chronic coughing is a relatively common condition treated by medical professionals worldwide. It is symptomatic of many ailments. The most notable of which are complications from chronic bronchitis or suffering from permanent lung damage due to long-term smoking. The later condition is often referred to, colloquially, as a smoker's cough.

The body's protective reaction a person experiences when inhaling smoke or toxins is commonly described as a “dry” cough. This form of cough is an irritated involuntary reaction that ceases shortly after the smoke or toxins are expelled from or prevented from entering into the lungs. A smoker's cough, on the other hand, can be more accurately described as the body's attempt to compensate for the failed performance of hair-like structures, called cilia. These naturally occurring cilia are prevalent in the nasal passage and trachea. Their primary function is to prevent harmful toxins from entering into the lungs by sweeping toxin-laden mucus either directly into the esophagus from the nasal passage or out of the trachea and into the esophagus.

The act of long-term smoking has been linked with rendering the aforementioned cilia ineffective. Once a significant portion of these cilia are ineffective, either through destruction or over-exertion, they can no longer prevent toxin-laden mucus from entering the lungs. This results in an overproduction of mucus in the nasal passage and the trachea. Essentially unchallenged, toxin-laden mucus enters into and remain within the lungs, which triggers additional mucus production within the lungs themselves. The body naturally, inadvertently, and ineffectively attempts to expel these toxins and the associated mucus by coughing. Unlike the body's protective dry cough, a smoker's cough is generally described as a “wet” cough, attempting to expel the body's unwanted mucus.

Medical professionals start diagnosing a smoker's cough, acute bronchitis, and chronic bronchitis by completing a thorough review of the patient's medical history. A physical examination is also performed and this includes listening to to the sounds of a patient's respiration with a stethoscope. Lung sounds that may point to an underlying diagnosis of bronchitis include wheezing and crackling sounds that can go away temporarily after coughing ceases.

Treatment of the smoker's cough generally requires that a patient to quit smoking. The longer a person has smoked, however, the more difficult it may be to quit. Moreover, there is an increased chance that with a long history of smoking, permanent damage to the cilia and lungs has already occurred, resulting in a permanent and persistent smoker's cough. This cough frequently occurs in the morning as the body attempts to clear toxin-laden mucus from the lungs and airways that has built up during the night. Occasionally, however, a person is prevented from even falling asleep due to an incessant, involuntary, smoker's cough, which is the body's attempt to prevent mucus from draining from the nasal passage into the trachea in the first place.

The current smoker's cough treatment offered by medical providers is directed primarily at medications and mouth devices, which are temporary in nature, highly invasive, and are often ineffective in allowing the patient to achieve a full night of productive sleep.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The preferred embodiment of the present invention and the method for its use is a device designed to address and alleviate a smoker's cough without resorting to medication or invasive mouth devices. From theory and testing, it has been observed that the angle at which a person's head is held, greatly affects the path that mucus drains. Because someone with a smoker's cough basically has ineffective nasal cilia in addition to tracheal cilia, the mucus drains directly into the trachea, and subsequently the lungs, instead of the esophagus. This creates two separate physiological bodily reaction points: a cough to prevent the mucus from draining into the trachea and a cough to attempt to expel the mucus once it is in the trachea or even the lungs. Once a person begins to experience a smoker's cough, it is hard to cease the involuntary action.

The present invention and method for its use retains the head in a fixed position and allows mucus to drain past the sensitive coughing area of the throat, directly into the esophagus. The present invention and the method for its use only requires application for 5 to 10 minutes. This is enough time to direct the day's residual mucus into the esophagus, not only ceasing the involuntary smoker's cough and allowing for a good night's sleep, but also helping to prevent mucus build-up within the lungs during the night, preventing the smoker's cough from starting as soon as the person wakes up.

Although several inventions exist that will hold a person's head in a given position, for example U.S. Pat. No. 6,128,797 to Shaffer, a face down tanning and massage pad, U.S. Pat. No. 6,842,924 B1 to Walters, a surgical head rest, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,718,581 B2 to Riach, a support device, none of these existing inventions provide the ability to change the angle at which the head is held and be produced at a low manufacturing cost. For example, many of them require much more material to construct than the preferred embodiment. Additionally, devices such as these require larger areas for storage when they are not in use.

The preferred embodiment is made from a dense foam, which allows the device to be either custom fitted or made in a variety of standard sizes at a very low manufacturing cost.

Although the precise angle at which the head must be held varies from person to person, each individual possesses one idiosyncratic angle at which the device proves optimally effective. The method of discovering this angle remains the same for each individual and can include general placement guidelines based on physiological characteristics and medical standards, allowing the user to locate the optimum angle with minimal device manipulation.

In an alternate embodiment, the device placement is controlled through an electronically-operated, mechanically-actuated positioning system capable of manipulating and maintaining the person's head in a precise and pre-determined position. A controlling computer will determine the optimum position based on the person's physiology and provide the alternate embodiment with a device target position, at which point the device will mechanically-actuate to match the target. Variations of the alternate embodiment will also involve different degrees of motion and storing previous target settings to improve the repeatability and reliability of the device. For example, one embodiment may actuate in one or more of the following ways: to induce flexion or extension; to induce lateral bending; or to induce rotation. This alternate embodiment may be a single device or a base that uses the preferred embodiment as a disposable insert, allowing for use in clean medical environments.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a front view depicting the perimeter of one the preferred embodiment of the present invention that also depicts the fillet radius from the front face to the edge-wall outer surface.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 depicts the edge-wall support structures of the preferred embodiment. It also depicts the fillet radius of the back face to the edge-wall outer surface and the fillet radius from the inner cavity surface to the edge-wall inner surface.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing the edge-wall support structure, inner surface fillets, and the upper portion of the edge-wall outer surface.

FIG. 5 is a side view of the preferred embodiment depicting the outer surface of the edge-wall and the fillets connecting said surface to both the front and back surfaces.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

As depicted and referenced in FIG. 1, the preferred embodiment of the present invention utilizes a perimeter shape with an outer surface 200 that is substantially flat on the bottom side 22, transitions 206 to a first side, transitions 208 to a top side 24, transitions 210 to a headrest surface 212 that is contoured to generally provide comfort and support for the user, and follows a substantially similar path from the top 24 down a second side to return to the bottom side 22 and surface 216. The device has a front surface 100 that generally transitions 202 to the outer surface 200.

Further depicted in FIG. 2, the general transition 202 of the front surface 100 from the front 10 to the side surface 200 follows a gradual and generally smooth path. The transition of the outer surface 200 to the first side occurs at surfaces 206 and 208, and the joining of the outer surface to the headrest surface 212 occurs at surface 210. In addition, the outer surface 200 similarly transitions to the back 30 through 204. In the preferred embodiment, all transition surfaces 202, 204, 206, 208, and 210 are generally smooth and commonly referred to in the manufacturing arts as either a fillet or radius, depending on the plane of reference. A person of ordinary skill in the art would recognize that multiple types of transitions would create a substantially similar feature. For example, replacing the fillet of 202 with a chamfer is considered an equivalent manufacturing technique.

The contoured headrest of surface 212 is configured such that the general adult forehead may be placed in between surfaces 210 and 214 and rest upon surface 212 such that the counter of 212 generally aligns with the lateral curvature of the adult forehead. In an alternate embodiment, the contour of 212 may come in a variety of shapes, such that different sizes of the present invention can be made to accommodate varying physiology. The precise contour of the headrest is not an object of the present invention.

The present invention comprises of an edge-wall, generally referenced as 218, that substantially forms the perimeter of the invention and is depicted in FIG. 3. The edge-wall, which is substantially perpendicular to the inner surface 500, receives structural support that general restricts device deformation along forces applied in the direction of top 24 to bottom 22 by including at least one cross-member, generally referenced as 400. The inclusion of multiple cross-members 400, as depicted in the preferred embodiment, are integral and substantially perpendicular with the inner surface 500. A person of ordinary skill in the art would recognize that alternate arrangements of cross-members could also be used to create the invention and are therefore disclosed herein. For example, in alternate embodiments, the cross-members may form a lattice or intersect at angles other than ninety degrees. The back of the invention is generally bounded by a back surface 300.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the present invention that depicts the transition 204 from the outer surface 200 to the back surface 300 and also discloses additional information about the integration of the edge-wall inner surface 220, the inner surface 500, and the cross-members 400. Forming negative cavities within the invention construction, the volume partially bounded by the inner surface 500, the edge-wall 220, the cross-member side 402 that is substantially perpendicular to the inner surface 500, and the spatial plan that would be theoretically bounded by the back surface 300 if it were present in that location. As depicted in FIG. 4, the transition surface between the inner surface 500 and the inner surface of the edge-wall 220, in the preferred embodiment is a gradual fillet 502. Although, a person of ordinary skill in the art would recognize structural equivalents to the depicted surface transition. Similarly, the transitions 504 between cross-member side surfaces 402 and the inner surface 500 are configured such that excessive strain between the cross-member side surfaces 402 and the inner surface 500 is avoided during use. Finally, FIG. 4 discloses that the cross-members are integrally formed with each other 404, to provide structural stability. This, however, may also be accomplished through the manufacturing of discrete cross-members that are disposed onto the device.

The generalized surface fillets of the present invention are depicted in FIG. 5. A side view of the transition 202 between the front surface 100 and the outer surface, generally 200, and the back surface 300 is disclosed. The front transition 202 facilitates the present invention tilting from vertical toward the front surface 10.

Claims

1. A device comprising: an edge-wall, a front wall, and at least one structural cross-member; wherein the front wall comprises a front surface and an inner surface; wherein said edge-wall comprises a top surface, a headrest surface, two side surfaces, and a bottom surface, all said surfaces having a transition between any adjacent surface; said edge-wall is further configured such that said headrest surface is disposed within the top surface substantially between the two side surfaces, and said headrest surface is configured to substantially match the lateral curvature of a human forehead; wherein said structural cross-member provides sufficient support to allow said headrest surface and edge-wall to support the force of a human head, wherein the human is lying in a prone position, and the force is applied substantially from the top surface to the bottom surface.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein all supporting cross-members are configured substantially perpendicular to the inner surface of the front wall.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein at least one supporting cross-member is configured substantially parallel to the bottom surface of the edge-wall, and at least one supporting cross-member is configured substantially perpendicular to the bottom surface of the edge-wall.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein a plurality of supporting cross-members are neither parallel nor perpendicular to the bottom surface of the edge-wall, forming a lattice.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein said device is unitary and formed from a single piece of material.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein said device is unitary and fabricated from a solid piece of foam material.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein said device is not unitary and at least one supporting cross-member is separately formed and disposed onto a surface of the device.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein the transition between the front surface and a bottom surface is a fillet.

9. The device of claim 1, wherein the bottom surface is contoured such that the surface is not planar.

10. The device of claim 1, wherein at least one cross-member is fabricated from a denser material than the material used to manufacture the edge-wall.

11. The device of claim 1, wherein said device is inflatable.

12. A method for therapeutically relieving coughing symptoms which comprises: laying in the prone position; resting a human head on a support device such that the head is in the most flexion position without causing discomfort; observing a mucous drain path; noting the amount of mucus draining; adjusting the relative position of a body or the device such that the human head rotates in extension; observing a new mucous drain path; comparing the amount of mucus draining with the noted amount of mucus draining; further adjusting the relative position of a body or the device such that the human head rotates in extension until the observed amount of mucus draining is less than the observed amount of mucus draining in the immediately previously observed position; returning to the previous position where the maximum noted amount of mucus was draining; and remaining in the position for ten minutes or until no more mucus is draining.

13. The Method of claim 12 wherein the steps involving adjusting the relative position of a body or the device such that the human head rotates in extension is performed by an electrically-actuated mechanical device.