Research Highlights
In Test of New Device to Prevent Pressure Sores, VA Researchers Join U.S. and Russian Initiative
Taken from the Veterans Health Administration Highlights dated January 18, 2002
Researchers at the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System will evaluate a new wheelchair device that has been developed by U.S. and Russian scientists who worked in concert as part of the Initiative to Prevent Proliferation Program that is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. The program employs weapons scientists from the former Soviet Union in peacetime pursuits, such as the development of medical products.
The Los Angeles VAMC researchers will be the first VA team to take part in the post-Cold War program that began in 1994. They will conduct a clinical trial of the Generic Total Contact Seat, a special cushion that fits on the seat of a wheelchair and compresses tissues to increase blood supply, and to prevent pressure sores.
Complications from pressure sores, a common problem among wheelchair users and bedridden patients, are estimated to cost more than $12 billion and cause 60,000 deaths each year in the United States. A company specializing in high-tech wound-care products is manufacturing the device, already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.