HEATED RIPPLE MATTRESS

Typical Number in Hospital: 10

Cost Bands: 3

References:

These are used in intensive care and also sometimes in the operating theatre to provide heat, and protection against pressure sores. The mattress is normally a double sheet of plastic welded together to provide two separate channels for water to pass through. The so-called ripple effect is achieved by directing warm water through one channel for a few minutes, and then through the other so that the patient is supported on different parts of the mattress in the two phases of the cycle, thus avoiding prolonged pressure on any point on the body.

Typical parameters for a ripple heat mattress and controller might be heating from 20 to 37[d]C in 15 minutes from a 2 litre reservoir tank, a flow rate of 45 l/h in the ripple mode and twice this in the non-ripple mode. The ripple cycle might be 6 minutes.