Apparatus to assist leg venous and skin circulation

Apparatus to assist leg venous and skin circulation comprising:

• a pair of stockings, one stocking being disposed around at least a portion of each leg of a person, said stockings each having a plurality of flexible members, each member defining an elongated and expandible fluid chamber, each fluid chamber extending substantially circumferentially around one of the person's leg, said chambers being axially adjacent each other;
• means for sequentially and cyclically fluidly pressurizing said chambers in each stocking in a cephalic direction, maintaining the pressure in each chamber for a predetermined period of time and thereafter exhausting said fluid pressure from each chamber, said means comprising a source of fluid pressure and a fluid distributor having an inlet connected to said pressure source and a plurality of fluid outlets, each outlet being fluidly connected to one of said chambers so that upon pressurization of one of said chambers, the flexible member expands and compresses around the leg of the person;
• and
• wherein said pressurizing means comprises means for providing a relatively lengthy rest period for each stocking following the sequential pressurization of all of the chambers in each stocking during each pressurization cycle;
• and
• wherein said pressurizing means comprises means for offsetting the sequential pressurization of one stocking from the other stocking.