Citation

Gokkel P, Anderegg A. Alzheimers Dement. 2021; 17 Suppl 8: e051563.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Alzheimer's Association, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1002/alz.051563

PMID

34971247

Abstract

An increasing number of patients with dementia and a lack of personnel in nursing homes is deteriorating the quality of life and causes more aggression incidents by nursing home residents. These patients experience behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia, such as psychosis, aggression, agitation. Antipsychotics are commonly prescribed off-label to manage these symptoms, despite warnings from the regulatory agencies regarding the increased risk of mortality associated with their use in elderly patients. Another fact is that this medication does not provide a hundred percent guarantee for the safety of the staff members. In many countries there is a policy to reduce fixation and isolation of aggressive patients. Therefore the nursing staff has less tools to prevent physical aggression by patients. Staff members informed us about this situation and we have designed an user friendly aggression prevention device, which limits the arm movements of the patient. In contrast to fixation the user can still perform all daily activities. This device is comfortable to wear, contrary to fixation. This device only prevents hitting movements with fully extended arms by a maximal 90 degree bending angle of the elbow. Also effective throwing with objects is inhibited. Product samples of this patented invention were made and tested for safety and effectiveness by martial art experts. After a positive result we offered this new medical device on request of a staff member, a renowned psychiatrist, to a health care organization for a medical trial. The product is registered in the European Union as a medical device Class I: NL-CA002-2017-42023. This invention was considered by several medical experts as a significant improvement to the safety in health care. However the hesitance of some managers to break with old protocols and try out something new was the reason to cancel the trial. We are looking for organizations (nursing homes, psychogeriatric hospitals etc) that can test this medical device.

Language: en