Pressure Care in Footrests
Ambassador can custom modify to provide Pressure Care in Footrests. Pressure ulcer management rightly places a heavy focus on the increased vulnerability of developing pressure ulcers when sedentary for long periods. Specifically, when sitting or lying on areas of the body that are affected by prolonged pressure from hard surfaces.
While important, it is also necessary to highlight how pressure ulcers can form simply from a sitting position. It’s also important it is to get the correct lift chair to suit a patient’s pressure care in recliners needs.
The Ambassador Lift Chair range is designed with the ability to custom modify the seat and footrest with additional pressure relief cushions. And also customisable in height, width and depth. Read on to find out exactly how this chair can help with pressure injury management.
What are Pressure Ulcers?
Pressure injuries are particularly common among individuals with limited mobility because they may not be able to alter their position throughout the day. The pressure makes it more difficult for blood to flow through the area, and over time this starves the skin of oxygen and nutrients usually provided by blood cells. The skin begins to die and if left untreated, a pressure ulcer can form.
When seated, there are a few areas of the body that may be at risk of pressure ulcers. Your bottom, tailbone, the backs of your legs, or even your elbows can be vulnerable if the seat you are sitting in doesn’t give you the correct support.
Chair Size & Pressure Ulcers
The sizing of the chair is critical. The size of our chairs actually helps to determine our posture.
For instance, if a chair is too short and shallow, our knees are elevated and thus more pressure goes to our bottoms and tailbones. Conversely, if the chair is too tall, there is significantly more pressure going on the backs of the legs as gravity pulls down our legs that may be dangling over the edge.
Similarly, if a chair is too deep we tend to slouch our backs so that our bottoms aren’t right in the corner of the seat. This places additional pressure on the tailbone, buttocks, and even the back of the head.
The Ambassador Lift Chair range comes in a variety of sizes and options to customise for everyone’s needs.
Pressure Relief in Footrests
Of course, one of the most straightforward features that care chairs can include is built-in pressure relief. Using specific materials and foams, chairs can help to relieve pressure on certain areas.
Pressure Care Fabrics
Ambassador can custom manufacture the range of lift chairs with Carrflex® barrier fabrics in the entire seat or targeted areas, such as the seat and footrest.
Carrflex is a range of premium barrier textiles, extensively used and relied upon in the medical and acute medical sectors. The specially formulated coating provides superior chemical resistance and ageing performance. Whilst retaining flexibility and breathability essential for pressure care applications. The enhanced polyamide backing fabric profiles superior stretch and recovery features for performance in demanding applications such as emergency departments.
Memory Foam Pressure Relief
Memory foam is one of the more popular options, moulding to the user’s body shape to spread the pressure and relieve problem areas. However, we would not recommend memory foam for clients over the 120 + kg weight range on the Ambassador chairs. The memory foam will compress under the weight and not support the user correctly, causing further pressure injuries.
Gel Pressure Relief Cushions
Flexigel cushions have a dual pressure dispersion structure with Multi-Layer Honeycomb Technology. This disperses the pressure on the hips and thighs and steadies the blood flow while seated. By using world patent pending Air Cell-Beta Gel material (not silicone), the Flexigel cushion has excellent restoring force and resilience. The double-structured Air Cell-Beta Gel provides a pleasant sitting feel with excellent breathability and is recommended for people prone to acquiring bed-sores or pressure injuries.
The CQ-1000 Non-Slip technology is applied to the base of the cover to prevent it from slipping. This can cause slouching while seated in the chair. Flexigel cushions can be custom modified to suit the Ambassador footrest or seat for pressure relief under the Carrflex Barrier Fabrics.
Foam/ Gel Combination For the Seat
The Systam Foam/ Gel combinations are a great consideration in the seat.
The memory foam is of particularly high quality, made inside the Systam plant through an innovative moulding method. The result is a much-improved transfer from high-risk to low-risk body parts. That just means the bony areas where skin breaks down at, the earliest, are protected.
The Systam cushions can be placed into the standard Ambassador range at the time of manufacture or retrofit after purchase.
ROHO
The Ambassador lift chair range can be custom manufactured to house individual ROHO or similar pressure care pillows. This can also be retrofit into a chair after purchase.
The purpose of a ROHO cushion is to decrease the amount of pressure on the sitting area through a patented technology of interconnected neoprene air cells that increase and decrease air volume to match an individual’s contours.
Conclusion
Contact your nearest stockist for further information on how Ambassador can custom modify to provide Pressure Care in Footrests.
