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AssigneeChattanooga Group, Inc.
InventorsFrederick W. Blanchard, Stephen L. Brown, Dwayne Hofstatter, D. Chris Linville, Jeffrey K. Pohl, James R. Vetter, Jr.
Estimating the term…
A therapeutic device may be used in providing physical therapy for a patient's knee by moving the patient's leg through a plurality of cycles of motion in each of a number of treatment sessions. The device includes a “Comfort Zone” range of motion feature which allows an operator to temporarily increase the flexion angle (or decrease the extension angle) to alleviate discomfort the patient is experiencing as the upper leg support and lower leg support pivot or attempt to pivot through a portion of the operational range of motion. The preferred embodiment of the device will automatically decrease the flexion angle (or automatically increase the extension angle) at a predetermined rate over a period of treatment time, so that the device may return to operation between the preset operational limits of the range of motion with a lower chance that the patient will experience the same pain or discomfort which necessitated the establishment of a Comfort Zone limit. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the carriage holding the patient's leg is decelerated, at a controlled rate over a controlled distance, from the operational speed to zero, as the carriage approaches the extension or flexion limit, and the carriage is accelerated in the same fashion as the carriage moves away from the extension or flexion limit.
A therapeutic device for use in providing physical therapy for a patient's knee, which device comprises:
The device of claim 21 wherein:
A method for providing physical therapy for a patient's knee by moving the patient's leg through a plurality of cycles of motion in which the patient's upper leg is pivoted with respect to the patients lower leg at the knee, wherein each cycle imposes a range of motion on the patient's leg comprising a flexion phase in which the angle between the femur of the patient's upper leg and the tibia of the patient's lower leg is decreasing and an extension phase in which the angle between the femur of the patient's upper leg and the tibia of the patient's lower leg is increasing, and wherein each cycle of motion is defined by a flexion limit which establishes the minimum angle between the femur of the patient's upper leg and the tibia of the patient's lower leg to which the patient's leg is pivoted during a flexion phase and an extension limit which establishes the maximum angle between the femur of the patient's upper leg and the tibia of the patient's lower leg to which the patient's leg is pivoted during an extension phase, which method comprises:
The method of claim 23 which includes setting a plurality of sequential intermediate flexion limits, each of which corresponds to a point along the axis of the frame which will establish a flexion angle that is about 1° less than the flexion angle established at the next preceding intermediate flexion limit.
The method of claim 23 which includes:
The method of claim 25 which includes reversing the direction of the driver upon actuation of the comfort zone actuator.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.