Design of a Knee Immobilization Equipment: Facing Multidisciplinary Challenges from both Engineering and Physiotherapy Fields
Angelo Roncalli Oliveira Guerra1; Ibson Alberto Ferreira de Freitas1; José Isaias de Lucena Neto1; Luiz Claúdio Ferreira da Silva1; Magno Moreno1; Rayssa Fontes Guerra2; Ricardo Guerra1; William Fernandes Queiroz1; Carlos Magno de Lima1
1 UFRN; 2 UNP
doi:10.20906/CPS/COB-2015-2523
Resumo
The number of accidents that result in fractures and/or dislocations of the knee, especially when dealing with traffic accidents, has grown at an alarming rate in Brazil. The statistics released by DPVAT (Brazilian insurance company for traffic accidents) confirm the number of accidents growth and has shown that in 2014, it was paid about 763.365 applications claim for compensation. On the way to work or school, it is increasingly more common to come across unpleasant scenes of people lying on the asphalt after facing a motorcycle accident and presenting multiple fractures. Unfortunately, rescuers professional of ambulances do not yet have available any effective equipment for immediate immobilization of an injured leg. In this situation of emergency, they end up calling for immobilization methods quite rustic and primary, using cardboard, bandages or any other utensil that is within reach to make a slow, fragile and inappropriate immobilization. Assuming the existence of fractures in the knee region and that the importance of quickness is inherent to any Emergency Medical Assistance (EMS) activity, it is essential that the leg remains exactly at the same fracture position until the patient reaches the hospital. A simple movement can increase the risk of an irreversible damage to the patient, reaching levels of complications that can mean from the total loss of movement to even an amputation of the limb. There is a consensus among health professionals about the need to seek to develop a lightweight equipment, easy to use and, above all, effective to ensure both speed and robustness of the practice of immobilization. In this context, this article presents a new concept of design of a prototype device that overcomes the various challenges mentioned above. In this article, the main contributions of an entire multidisciplinary team (i.e. engineers, physiotherapists, etc.) are described along with the excellent results achieved in the preliminary practice tests carried out in street field trials. Finally, the relevant
Palavras-chave: Knee Immobilization; Prehospital equipment; System engineering; Bioengineering; Prehospital care; EMS