A top priority to ensuring a successful surgery is proper patient positioning. This involves comfortably positioning the patient to maintain neutral body alignment and prevent complication or injury. Proper positioning is paramount not only for surgical efficiency, but also for skin shearing prevention, infection prevention, and overall hospital cost reduction. Clinical innovations like the Opt-Shield Air Positioner™ simplify surgical positioning, maximizing operating room efficacy and setting patients up for a successful surgery and smooth recovery.
Preventing Injuries and Ensuring Patient Safety
Opt-Shield Air Trendelenburg Positioning Device is a unique and innovative platform combining convective forced-air warming blankets attached to soft, thick foam to prevent skin shearing, pad pressure points, and protect vulnerable brachial plexus nerve areas in the shoulders, all while simultaneously stabilizing and anchoring the patient to the O.R. table during steep head-down cases. The Opt-Shield Air is an exceptional device. Its meticulous design components enhance safety to prevent sliding, deliver superior warming channels, and streamline the entire positioning process.
With safety and security at the forefront of its design concept, the Opt-Shield Air first attaches directly to the table with six hefty Velcro straps. This device incorporates multiple measures to guard against sliding and movement with anti-skid features on the underside of the bottom layer to grip and supply extra traction. Layers of cushiony soft foam pads shield nerves from pressure and eliminate skin shearing forces. Two oversized arm pads are intentionally designed with additional length for quick adjustment to any patient height; each is configured with extra foam at the end to fully wrap and encase the fingers and hands. The double layer Upper Torso Support System built into the patented Opt-Shield Air is engineered to maintain even weight distribution, accommodating patients up to 400 pounds.
Atop the base level, several long foam rectangles extend above the head, fan out, and fold over the shoulders, attaching to the arm pads via numbered Velcro straps. No straps or Velcro are ever in contact with the skin at any time. These shoulder wraps keep pressure off the brachial plexus and cradle the patient in padded comfort, reinforcing immobility when steep head-down positioning is later initiated.
Each arm pad is manufactured with several intentional slits to allow an exit point for pulse oximeter cables, IV tubing, arterial lines, and EKG leads, removing them from vulnerable arm and torso areas. Additional cubes of soft foam are provided to position underneath stopcocks and further guard skin and nerves from pressure and shearing forces.
Maintaining Patient Comfort and Warmth
Patients in lithotomy position undergoing robotic procedures present special challenges for maintaining normothermia since so much of the body is exposed in the sterile surgical field. With the Opt-Shield Air, convective warming is initiated using your institution’s forced-air warming unit inserted in a single port to inflate three blankets simultaneously. The clever engineering of the convective blanket design delivers incomparable warming, even in lithotomy position! Three convective blankets, interconnected via one channel, simultaneously inflate around the upper thighs, the under body, and the upper body.
Special emphasis and attention to detail are evident in the sacral opening in the underbody pad, which creates a notch for surgical access to the pelvis during urological, gynecological, and colorectal procedures without disrupting active warming.
This modern approach and novel thigh wrap design allows the blankets to cover 54% more of the total body area, as opposed to only 10% coverage when using a single upper body blanket alone. With such effective warming, hypothermia is averted, and the risk of Surgical Site Infections (SSIs) will drop. Emergence from general anesthesia is accelerated in the normothermic patient, translating to a faster OR exit and quicker, smoother recovery. Warm patients have less pain in PACU because there is no need for shivering to generate body heat, which can certainly increase Patient Satisfaction Scores.
Although not a lifting device, the Opt-Shield Air includes a draw sheet for lifting and repositioning plus a full “turn-over kit” with extensive arm, shoulder, hands, and finger padding, large base sheet to cover arm boards and OR table, a structured head rest, and Velcro straps to secure the device to the table. The upper body convective warming blanket includes a clear plastic drape connected by an adhesive edge to visualize the head and airway while also preventing heat loss. The under body convective blanket, two thigh wrap convective blankets, and upper body blanket are built-in and included.
Cost Savings and Product Consolidation
With a nod to indirect cost savings, the Opt-Shield Air consolidates active warming with Trendelenburg and lithotomy positioning. From the start of the selection and purchasing process, five SKUs are already included in one apparatus, which saves clinicians time in the operating room and offers cost containment. A reverse-cross reference of all the items you currently gather from separate vendors will highlight the simplicity of the Opt-Shield Air, which has everything you need. Since it’s fully pre-assembled in the package, it can save time in the OR as well as through inventory management. A 2015 AORN Journal article concluded Opt-Shield Air saves 7 minutes of time; each minute of OR time at $66.00 per minute would equate to $462.00 for every case utilizing the Opt-Shield Air.
As a comprehensive solution built to address multiple challenges in the preoperative environment at once, the Opt-Shield Air stands as a testament to innovation in healthcare, exemplifying its ability to transform patient care and optimize hospital and operational efficiency.
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