DEVELOPMENT AND PRE-CLINICAL INVESTIGATION OF A MASSAGE DEVICE FOR THE LOW BACK

The low back pain is one of the most widespread pathologies in the world. Several treatments can be adopted to reduce the pain; one of these is the low back massage. Typically, the massage treatment is carried out by the manual manipulation of the lumbar spine. Moreover, some devices are commercially available. In this paper, a new pneumatic massage device for the lower back is presented. Silicone rubber actuators can exert compression forces by the air inlet inside them. An overall amount of 48 actuators covers all the low back of the user, according to the anatomy characteristics of him. A suitable structure supports the actuator and allows them to adhere to the user. The repetitive sequence of air inlet/outlet, from the mid to the low back or from left to right, is able to reproduce the manual massage treatment. The design, the prototype and the performance of the pneumatic actuator are described. A pre-clinical investigation was carried out to collect the level of perception and acceptance of the massage treatment and to collect information about the massage device. Experimental results, obtained by laboratory tests on healthy people, showed the effectiveness of the device.