Tennessee Patent of the Month – July 2022

Walking and running puts pressure on the venous plexus vein on the arch of the foot. This pressure helps to increase circulation. Foot wraps can simulate this pressure, increasing blood circulation more often. These wraps typically use an inflated bladder within the wrap to achieve the pressure. A pneumatic pump cyclically inflates and deflates the bladder. Albahealth, LLC has designed an improved foot wrap which creates a greater compression pressure on the vein.

Maximizing the compression applied to the vein is essential to properly and reliably increasing blood circulation. In order to achieve this maximized compression, the company designed their foot wrap with a binding, a bladder, and a support pad. The binding is non-stretchable and is attached to a stretchable bladder chamber. The support pad is positioned at the bottom of the foot. Attached wings wrap around to the top and use hooked fasteners to secure it in place. In this setup, the bladder is positioned directly below the venous plexus vein. 

The pneumatic pump begins inflating the bladder. The binding, which is not stretchable, prevents the bladder from moving back towards binding. Instead, the air and the bladder can only expand towards the stretchable panel, concentrating the expansion towards the venous plexus vein. This concentrated movement maximizes the compression against the vein. It also allows the bladder to work more efficiently, requiring less air pressure per inflation cycle. 

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