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Inditherm's patient
warming products are based on their patented carbon polymer
technology. This provides a completely uniform conductive heating surface, which
is extremely flexible and is powered at low voltage (24Vac). There are no
heating "elements", so warming is completely even, avoiding hot and cold spots
and allowing much better heat transfer.
The carbon polymer is combined with a viscoelastic foam pad to give
unrivalled heat transfer characteristics. The pliable heating surface provided
by the polymer allows it to be placed above the pressure relieving pad, ensuring
that there is no attenuation of the warming performance. The combination of
these two materials allows the heating surface to mould itself to the shape of
each individual patient, giving the largest possible area of contact. The
viscoelastic properties ensure that the warming mattress returns to its original
flat surface once the patient is removed, ready to be used for the next case.
The mattress is encapsulated in a latex-free, nylon fabric cover, with
non-microporous polyurethane coating, which is fully sealed with RF welded
seams. This unique design ensures that the highest possible thermal transfer
characteristics can be achieved, giving the best warming performance
available.
The carbon polymer technology is extremely durable and should not be confused
with carbon fibre materials, which suffer from limited life and degradation of
performance due to the fragile nature of the individual fibres and their
consequent breakage during routine use. Similarly, there is no comparison
between the Inditherm system and conventional technology mattresses; the latter
typically use elements for heating and therefore cannot give anything like the
same warming characteristics, which in most cases is further hampered by the
need to use gel pads between the patient and
the heating surface, for pressure relief. The Inditherm polymer also eliminates
the risk of burning patients, which is associated with
broken heating elements in traditional electrical mattresses. Water mattresses can give
reasonable heating performance; however they are not nearly as convenient,
typically suffer from reliability problems with annoying leakages and are
normally considerably more expensive.
Forced air warming has been
the dominant technology for over a decade. However, this method is not always
considered convenient, requiring a special blanket on top of the patient and
therefore reducing ease of access to the patient for the surgical, nursing and
anaesthetic teams. Further, forced air also warms the surrounding environment
and staff and can thus affect laminar flow operating room systems. The cost of
disposable items associated with air warming is significant and may have an
effect on the number of patients being actively warmed. As a result, ever
increasing numbers of users are finding that the Inditherm system is much more
effective, convenient and economical than forced air warming, and the standard
therefore looks likely to change rapidly in the coming years.
Safe and easy to use
A control unit is used to maintain the mattresses and blankets at
the user-selected temperature. Temperature is monitored by a thermistor built
into the mattress or blanket and this signal is used to allow control of the power
supplied. The control unit uses a transformer to convert the mains input to
24Vac, and regulates this to achieve and maintain the required heating. This low
voltage operation ensures safety for both patient and staff, and the system is
fully isolated and approved to medical device regulations for Class II, Type BF.
A thermal cut-out is also integrated into the mattress or blanket to prevent
over-temperature.
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