IAU Inventor Creates a Device That Controls Patient Positioning in the Operating Room

Dr. Hassan Al-Bishr, an IAU assistant professor and a consultant endocrinologist at King Fahd University Hospital -Khobar (an IAU-affiliated hospital), invented a device that controls patient positioning in the operating room for some surgical cases before, during, and after surgery. The device is designed to be placed between the operating room table and the patient.

Dr. Al-Bishr states that the device contains six components, some of which are basic and essential while others are optional. All of these parts are completely covered and medically isolated on both sides. He adds that the device's basic components consist of an expandable upper back cushion to raise the upper part of the chest and neck and two cushions placed under the head that can be expanded bilaterally or unilaterally. The bilateral expansion can be used to raise the head and the neck to a certain level in an equal balance, whereas the unilateral expansion is used to raise the head from one side. Another part of this device is a ring pillow used to keep the head stable during any movement of the body. The small units of this device (the main component of the cooling and heating system) are connected to each other by a network that maintains a uniform temperature distribution in the system. This network is connected to a thermometer, two main hoses, and an external source that supplies the system with the substance used for cooling/heating. The device helps in reducing the pressure on body parts during the surgery, Dr. Al-Bishr states.

He also explains how important the device is to patients, stating that it can be used in various kinds of surgeries such as neck surgeries,   those of the head and upper part of the chest, as well as surgeries of the thyroid gland, parathyroid; ear, nose and throat; trachea, spine, esophagus, and cervical lymph nodes. It can also be used in cervical artery disease surgeries, which often require a specific position to extend or bend the neck in order to increase the distance between the patient's chin and the front of the chest to increase the clear working space to facilitate the surgical procedure for the target part.

Dr. Al-Bishr explains that the problems of the traditional method require physical effort from the medical staff that is increased with the number of times the patient has to be repositioned, sometimes compounded by the patient's weight. This leads to a waste of surgery time, not to mention the problems of having to change the patient’s position during surgery without compromising the sterilized equipment and the safety of the patient during surgical operations.  It is also worth mentioning that patient positioning by the traditional method is limiting and cannot be implemented easily once the operation begins. He indicates that the role of the university in supporting the invention is in registering the innovation and its transfer from its theoretical and experimental form to its final form as a compact product, by improving it as necessary and marketing it.

Dr. Al-Bishr adds that the patent was registered at the United States Patent and Trademark Office with the number US 9, 889, 056 B2 through Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University. The experimental model was made and tested outside operation rooms.