Abstract: A surgical positioning system includes a flexible air-impermeable shell filled with beads that is wrapped against the patient and subjected to a vacuum to hold the patient in place. An air-impermeable top wall can be joined with an air-impermeable bottom wall to define a plurality of chambers. Each of the chambers can include a peripheral edge that extends around the periphery of the respective chamber. The plurality of chambers can include a first shoulder chamber, a second shoulder chamber, and a main chamber.

Abstract: A surgical positioning system includes a flexible air-impermeable shell filled with beads that is wrapped against the patient and subjected to a vacuum to hold the patient in place. The shell includes rounded shoulder portions, on either side of a separately inflatable pillow, to envelop portions of the patient's neck and shoulders, tapered waist portion to provide easy access to a patient's forearms and lower lateral abdomen, and expanded wrist hand portion to cradle the patient's hands and thighs.

Abstract: A vacuum activated veterinary surgical positioning system is disclosed for supporting and retaining the body of a four-legged animal in a selected position. The system includes a bag made of flexible, air impermeable material having top and bottom opposing walls air impermeably joined at their upper, lower and lateral edges. The bag has a width about equal to the sum of the width of the animal's trunk plus the widths of the lateral portions of the animal's trunk. The bag has a trunk portion with a length about the same as the length of the animal's trunk. The bag is extended in its center portion to provide a medically desirable support for the animal's head and neck. A charge of elastically deformable plastic beads is disposed within the bag.

Abstract: A surgical positioning device for supporting the body of a patient in a selected lateral position comprises a bag made of flexible, air-impermeable material filled with a charge of elastically deformable expanded polystyrene beads, and includes a valve for evacuating air from the bag such that the bag forms a rigid structure to support the patient's body in the selected position. An inflatable pillow is attached to the upper edges of the bag at the center thereof such that when inflated, the pillow supports the patient's axilla and eliminates pressure, thereby to prevent injury to the patient's brachial plexus.

Abstract: An adjustable cervical collar is fabricated from a one-half inch thick unitary neoprene member six inches wide by thirty-two inches long. The member includes a laterally extending center portion. It is scored on its inside surface to a depth of about three-eighths inch along the edges of the center portion to provide first and second portions that are foldable towards the outside surface of the center portion. The first foldable portion is wide enough to extend vertically above a patient's occiput and long enough to extend laterally to the patient's mastoid processes. The center portion is wide enough to support the patient's chin and to avoid excessive pressure against the patient's carotid arteries. Hook and loop fasteners attached to the inside and outside surfaces at opposite ends of the member permit the collar to be releasably fastened around the patient's neck. Folding one or the other or both of the foldable portions towards the outside surface permits the collar to adapt to four different neck sizes.