A smart mattress for detecting and correcting the prone position: A feasibility study toward night‐time
SUDEP
prevention
Jong Woo Lee, Pranav Bansal, Ioannis Smanis, Justin Nguyen, Ellen Pritchard, Janet Orozco, Andres Rodriguez Abstract
Objective
Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) is the leading cause of death in otherwise healthy patients with epilepsy; about 70% occurs during sleep, and nearly 90% of patients are found prone (face‐down). Following a nocturnal seizure, terminal apnea occurs between 2.5 and 10.8 min postictally (median ~ 5 min), defining a narrow but actionable window for intervention. Although body‐position sensors are well established in sleep medicine and have been applied in epilepsy, no current product combines prone‐position detection with autonomous repositioning into a recovery (sideways) position.
Methods
Korus is a smart mattress made of an array of inflatable cells. Korus consists of a sensor system to rapidly detect body change with high accuracy and a grid of expandable cells that reposition a patient from the prone to the recovery position.
Results
Ten normative control subjects were recruited, nine of whom were systematically tested. Each Korus cell generated a lift of 454 kg/cell at 5 cm/s. The sensor array detected body position changes within 5 s. Manually controlling the cells to reposition the subject from prone to recovery was successful in 100% of attempts in an average of 21.75 (±5.85) seconds. Body position detection was 96.8% accurate in detecting the prone position and 92.4% accurate overall in detecting the correct body position (supine, prone, left, right). False body position detection rate was 2.3 events/h. There were no incorrect position detections when subjects switched into the prone position.
Significance
This study demonstrates the feasibility of developing a smart mattress to detect the prone position and rapidly reposition subjects into a recovery position. Future development includes a control system to automate repositioning based on sensor data. The Korus device, when paired with a seizure detection device, may help lower the risk of night‐time SUDEP, though the magnitude of any benefit remains to be established.
Plain Language Summary
Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) most frequently occurs at night, and the prone position is a major risk factor. A device to autonomously reposition a patient to the recovery position may markedly reduce the rates of SUDEP. Here we describe the Korus, a smart mattress with the ability to reposition patients out of the prone position in their sleep.