Title:Improving reclining mechanism of wheelchairs. - from necessity of semi-Fowler's position -
Author:Kazuo MARUTA,Shigeyuki MIYANAGA (Ishikawa Prefectual Hatta Nursing Home)
Proceedings of 12th Japanese Conference of Advancement of Rehabilitation Technology. vol.12,pp.23-26 (August,1997)
Keywords:
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed:
Kazuo MARUTA (Ishikawa Prefectual Hatta Nursing Home)
TEL:0762-57-2333


Abstract:
This paper describes importance to make semi-Fowler's position on wheelchairs and modification of a ready-made wheelchair. Semi-Fowler's position is the posture with the back reclined and the knee raised. Since regular reclining wheelchairs have mechanisms to change only back rest angle and foot rest position, they enforce patients to sit in wrong posture that the pelvis slide forward. It causes swallowing problem and pressure sore. To solve these problem, the Full Reclining Carry 20201 (T Co.Ltd.) was modified. A 100mm thicker back rest shorted the depth of seat. A wedge-shaped cushion under the seat makes the 100mm difference in the height between forward and backward of the seat. These modifications can make semi-Fowler's position. When two bed-ridden elderly people used this wheelchair, they didn't only make good sitting posture but also prevented aspiration. Then, a new mechanism to raise the front part of the seat were connected to reclining mechanism of the same type of wheelchair in order to get semi-Fowler's position easily.