Post-Operative Ambulation

Early post-operative ambulation is often limited by pain but is important in preventing post-operative complications and promoting patients’ recoveries. Current devices used in the market to achieve early ambulation by transitioning a patient from supine to sitting or sitting to standing include Hoyer lifts, remote controlled ICU beds, bed rails, and bed poles. The issues with these devices are that they are expensive, limited to a hospital setting, and require assistance. This is very important, because we wanted to help patients regain mobility quicker and be discharged earlier, so they will continue recovery at home. We want to develop a tool/device to enhance the patient’s ability to safely and independently move from a supine to sitting position. We created 3 separate wedges (bottom, middle, top) using a clear low-density polyethylene material (LDPE) which we sealed using a heated bar sealer. The device was connected to an external air pump and three solenoid valves to control the airflow for sequential inflation of the wedges. The focus of our verification test is to test the functionality of our device, namely whether or not it is able to achieve an angle of 90 degrees of inclination in under 2 minutes. This type of device is very beneficial for post-operative patients, it helps improve the patient’s outcomes as well as the recovery time. This device can also help any person who struggles to get out of bed and needs to improve their mobility.