Patient positioning apparatus and mattress

Abstract

A patient positioning apparatus (200) for use with a mattress comprises a first lateral tilt bladder (10) and a third lateral tilt bladder (14) configured to underlie a first side of the mattress, and a second lateral tilt bladder (12) and a fourth lateral tilt bladder (16) configured to underlie a second side of the mattress. The tilt bladders are inflatable to alter the position of a patient lying on the mattress, and inflation and/or deflation of the lateral tilt bladders is controllable by a controller (120). The first lateral tilt bladder is configured to tilt the patient's sternum towards the second side of the mattress when inflated, the second lateral tilt bladder is configured to tilt the patients sternum towards the first side of the mattress when inflated, the third lateral tilt bladder is configured to tilt the patients pelvis towards the second side of the mattress when inflated, and the fourth lateral tilt bladder is configured to tilt the patients pelvis towards the first side of the mattress when inflated. A first check valve (28) is configured to allow fluid communication in one direction from the third lateral tilt bladder to the first lateral tilt bladder, and a second check valve (30) is configured to allow fluid communication in one direction from the fourth lateral tilt bladder to the second lateral tilt bladder. In a preferred aspect, the first and second lateral tilt bladders extend in a longitudinal direction from a waist portion towards a head end of the patient positioning apparatus and have a length of between 690 mm and 950 mm. A mattress and mattress system are also provided.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.