Article
Device for immobilization
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Published: | September 24, 2009 |
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The new Marburg facility for particle therapy has been carefully designed for an optimal patient care keeping the inconvenient fixation time in the treatment room short and to yield a smooth patient flow.
Immobilization of the patients is carried out in the preparation rooms close to the treatment rooms. Especially immobilizations in a vacuum cushion (vacuum mattress) will be one of the important standard workflow processes in the preparation room.
However, the daily procedure for placing the patient into the vacuum cushion is particularly problematic, because the cushion - exactly formed at the patient for the planning CT and the following treatment fractions - is sensible for local pressing. The shape of the cushion could be deformed, when the patients "climb" onto the mattress. Within a few days the vacuum cushion would loose the defined shape.
We found a solution that improves the comfort for the patient and that protects the vacuum cushion. A device (called "KVP") was designed that allows the placing of the patient into the cushion in a vertical position of the treatment table. Therefore, in the preparation room the patient steps onto the lift-plate of the device while the table is vertical and is then tilted backwards to the horizontal position. This tilting device will be installed at the wall of the preparation rooms.
We have successfully tested this procedure in some realistic trials. We found that it is much more comfortable for the patient than climbing onto a horizontal vacuum cushion and we are sure that it improves the durability of the shape.