An External Aid for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Drooping Head Syndrome (DHS) Patients

Abstract

Every year thousands of people get affected by Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and drooping head conditions that disable the people to have control over their head and neck extensor muscle. Commercially available supports impart four major hazards to the patients: suffocation, skin irritation, difficulty in swallowing, and neck soreness/pain. To reduce these adverse effects, a unique three-way support system that supports the head, neck, and chin is designed to arrest head movements such as flexion, extension, rotation and abduction. The proposed design is built incorporating essential biomechanics and ergonomics principles that provides required thrust in bringing the head upright with minimal stress zones. The system consists of a base panel, head panel and chin cap that are fabricated using polypropylene and the anterior and posterior support frames are fabricated using aluminum flat respectively. The supporting components are integrated using straps, made up of Nylon-Velcro material, facilitating effective head immobilization as well as easy portability. Coverings are provided with liner foam sheets that provide cushion support and protective covering for the users. Total deformation, safety factor and fatigue characteristics of the structural elements of the support are studied in a 3D modeling environment to understand the load distribution on the aid during actual usage through finite element simulations. No human data is collected during the simulation and all force acting on body is based on FEA simulation. The simulation results prove that the net force acting on the body-torso is negligible with minimal stress effects. This ensures all the mentioned hazards are greatly reduced in the proposed design in comparison with prior-arts