Air microfluidics-enabled active compression apparel

Figure 1. (a) Air Microfluidic Chip, (b) pull-on active compression sleeve, (c) zippered active compression sleeve.

Waterloo’s Air Microfluidics Enabled Active Compression Apparel provide a novel and disruptive microfluidic chip design which offers state-of-the-art sequential actuation capability with a miniaturized and low-cost control box. The wearable control box makes the apparel/sleeve lightweight and portable with much lower cost, noise, and battery consumption than its competitive counterparts. Waterloo’s current prototype demonstration is an effective, affordable, and wearable active edema/lymphedema sleeve.

Current competitive technologies rely on solenoid valves (as many as 17) which are costly, heavy, noisy, and power hungry. This ultimately results in trade-offs between performance, cost, and portability for end-users.

Waterloo’s Air Microfluidic Enabled Active Compression Apparel addresses all of these issues by offering state-of-the-art performance, while being cost effective, easy to use (donning and doffing), portable and comfortable to wear.

Advantages

• Novel and disruptive microfluidic chip design which offers state-of-the-art sequential actuation capability with a miniaturized and low-cost control box.
• Affordable, portable and wearable active edema sleeve/apparel.
• Much lower noise and battery consumption than competitive counterparts.
• Soft air bladder design that contours to the body while retaining a sleek low-profile aesthetics even when fully inflated.

Potential applications

• Treatment and management of lymphedema, dependent edema, CVI, venous leg ulcers, CVD, DVT, varicose veins, VTE, and gravitational eczema.
• Treatment of musculoskeletal and spinal injuries (e.g. sportspersons and athletes).

Patent status

Patent filed

Stage of development

Prototype developed and currently being validated