Underwear wired to prevent bed sores

Superman star Christopher Reeve, who had a spinal cord injury, died in 2004 after suffering a system-wide infection from a bed sore that led to heart failure and a coma.  These sores are common due to the immobilization SCI causes. But researchers are working on new technology to help end this epidemic.

Researchers presented Smart-e-Pants, underwear that looks like bike shorts, with a “built-in electronic system” that shocks the bottom to prevent the development of these bed sores, at Neuroscience 2012, the Society for Neuroscience conference’s recent annual meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Bed sores, also called pressure ulcers, are painful open wounds, usually over bony areas of the body. The prototype underwear delivers tiny, intermittent electrical shocks, contracting the buttock muscles.

“The mini-muscle contractions generated by the underwear mimics the subconscious fidgeting of able-bodied individuals, stimulating blood flow and redistributing pressure away from the sitting bones,” according to the Oct. 15 media release that came out on the same day as the scientific presentation.

Of the 33 clinical care patients, none developed pressure ulcers during the two-month study period, Sean Dukelow, MD, PhD, of the University of Calgary in Canada, reported. The underwear delivered muscle-contracting stimulation four days per week for 10 seconds every 10 minutes, 12 hours a day.

Researchers plan to follow up this clinical trial with further efficacy studies. Funds from Alberta Innovates – Health Solutions in the Canadian province of Alberta supported the research.

This research is important because of the devastating human and economic cost of these wounds.

One in three people with SCI develop a pressure sore during the early days after the injury and between 50 and 80 percent at some later point, according to the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation.

These pressure ulcers can lead to increased risk of infection, hospitalization, and death. In the United States alone, 60,000 people each year die from complications related to pressure ulcers, statistics show. The economic cost is also staggering, estimated at $11 billion in the U.S. and $3.5 billion in Canada.

“Pressure ulcers can be terribly debilitating. Their incidence has not changed since the 1940’s, indicating that the current methods of prevention simply are not working,” Robyn Warwaruk Rogers, a research nurse at the University of Calgary, said in the media release. “Our hope is that this innovative, clinically friendly system will eventually make a difference in the lives of millions of people.”

Stewart Midwinter, who broke his neck paragliding last year, has noticed the added protection while sitting in a wheelchair for long periods of time as one the of the first patients to test the device, according to an Alberta feature story by Colin Zak published earlier this year. “I now face many challenges I hadn’t expected, and Smart-e-Pants give me some added peace of mind,” Midwinter said.