The present invention relates to thermal packs or applicator units for making hot or cold applications to the human body in medical treatment, and more particularly, to a therapeutic thermal pack unit which can be contoured to a predetermined portion of a person's body for maintaining a uniform body temperature for therapeutic purposes.
A plurality of hot or cold applicators exist in the prior art whereby a thermal fluid is circulated at a first temperature from a supply into an applicator and thence through a serpentine or convoluted path back out of the applicator to return the circulating fluid to the supply so that a continuous flow of fluid at said first temperature may be inputted to the applicator. Such systems are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,896,953; 2,726,658; and 3,683,902 which are incorporated by reference herein for teaching systems in which such applicator units may be used and for teaching thermal fluid storage and circulation means for such systems.
Such systems do not, however, insure a uniform temperature throughout the system. In fact, the opposite is true. In the first place, cooling fluid tends to heat (and heating fluid tends to cool) as it travels along the serpentine or convoluted path. The further the fluid travels from the point of input the warmer (or cooler) it becomes. Due to the serpentine or convoluted nature of the fluid paths used in the prior art, one area may be cooled at a first temperature while another area immediately adjacent thereto may be at quite a different temperature since it may be directly under another portion of the fluid conduit which has traveled some distance and then returned adjacent the first portion. Such temperature discontinuities or differentials over a relatively slight distance are undesirable.
One of the prime objects of the compress of the present invention is to enable it to be readily configured to conform to any part of the human body which has recently undergone plastic surgery, a skin graft or the like, such as the area of the human body about an eye, a nose, an ear, or the like, and then to provide a relatively uniform and constant relatively cool temperature to such an area to prevent swelling and to retard the tendency of the newly-applied skin to die before the flow of blood begins.
It has been found that optimum results are often achieved when the temperature is maintained relatively constant or at least when a relatively constant linear temperature gradient is established along the length of the compress so that immediately adjacent areas do not experience relatively sharp temperature differentials.
The present invention eliminates the deficiencies of the prior art and provides a mechanically simple, low cost, therapeutic thermal pack unit or compress which can be molded to retainably conform closely to the contours of any given portion of the human body and which can simultaneously provide a constant or at least a uniform linear temperature gradient along the length of the pack unit thereby greatly enhancing its therapeutic value.