Abstract
The head-neck orthosis is a device intended for patients with swallowing disorders. The orthosis increases the user's quality of life, enables safe food intake and performing activities requiring an upright head position.
Anchoring the head in an upright position will reduce the risk of inhaling food or saliva and at the same time allow the user to ensure that the head is upright during normal daily activities (reading or writing, working on a PC, watching television). We anticipate the use of orthoses especially in patients with neurological disorders such as neuromuscular diseases with "dropped head" syndrome, eg ALS, Parkinson's disease, myasthenia gravis, myopathy, or in patients with ENT diseases with dysphagia or in orthopedics / neurosurgery in degenerative cervical spine diseases, conditions after cervical spine surgery.
The improvement of the prototype consists in the addition of a fixation tape under the chin, which allows better fixation of the head and at the same time does not affect food intake and swallowing. The spinal support (length and curvature optimization) was also modified so that the orthosis did not press on soft tissues and at the same time fulfilled its function.
The easy manipulation by caregivers and medical staff and its applicability in home and institutional care were confirmed.