SEQUENTIAL INTERMITTENT COMPRESSION DEVICE FOR LIMBS

SEQUENTIAL INTERMITTENT COMPRESSION DEVICE A device for applying compressive pressures against a patient's limb from a source of pressurized fluid. The device has an elongated pressure sleeve for enclosing a length of a patient's limb, with the sleeve having a plurality of separate fluid pressure chambers progressively arranged longitudinally along the sleeve from a lower portion of the limb to an upper portion of the limb proximal the patient's heart relative the lower portion. The device has means for intermittently forming a plurality of fluid pressure pulses from the source in a timed sequence during periodic compression cycles. The device also has means for connecting the different pressure pulses of the sequence to separate chambers in the sleeve in an arrangement with later pulses in the sequence being connected to more upwardly located chambers in the sleeve to apply a compressive pressure gradient against the patient's limb by the sleeve which decreases from the lower to upper limb portions. The device also has means for intermittently connecting the chambers to an exhaust means during periodic decompression cycles between the compression cycles.