Gurney Mattress Redesign

One of the most devastating yet survivable injuries today is trauma to the spinal cord. Often times this injury results in the inability of the patient to move and feel below the neck. When transporting these individuals on a gurney to perform routine tests, they are prone to excessive pressures over long periods of time that may result in the breakdown of skin, muscle and other tissues over pressure sensitive areas resulting in the formation of pressure ulcers [1]. The financial burden to treat pressure ulcers is high. The cost to heal a single complex full-thickness pressure ulcer has been estimated to be $70,000 [2] and the total economic burden of treating all pressure ulcers was estimated to be as high as $1.335 billion per year [3]. These costs not only load society with an enormous financial burden, but the patient must undergo a series of treatments that may last for months which will remove them from productive activities.