|
The Patient Measuring System consists
of three parts: Patient Measuring Tape, Prescription
Form, and Prescription Form Office Holder. The Patient
Measure Tape is a disposable measuring tape that indicates
a garment size rather than inches or centimeters. It
is calibrated using Marena's textile engineering data
to determine the size ranges for each style.
Marena wants you to use preoperative
measurements indicated on the size chart unless there
is some compelling reason offered by your physician
not to do so.
Garment designers and pattern makers
have a dilemma everyday when working with fabrics: they
must design comfortable garments for people within the
same size range who, in reality, have body size variation.
For example, no two "Medium" people are exactly
alike. With stretch fabrics, this issue is even more
important as wearing comfort can be greatly reduced
if the garment is too tight.
It is critical that designers of
stretch garments accurately accommodate body size variations
even within the same garment size. To do this, they
must know exactly how their fabric stretches and how
it feels on the body as it stretches. Because most stretch
garment designers are designing garments that are worn
for only a few hours, this type of data from textile
manufacturers is very limited or not available at all.
If they have it, the information the typical textile
company might provide is certainly not sufficient for
the purposes of designing "24-hour/7-day/3 month
wear", comfortable and functional stretch garments.
However, even without this detailed
fabric performance data, designers must do their best
to design patterns. But, there is still another limitation
they face in order to make comfortable and functional
stretch garments: the standard fabrics they use do not
stretch very much. When fabrics stretch very little,
the difference between sizes must be relatively small!
Otherwise, the larger "Medium" patient would
feel too tight in the "Medium" garment designed
more for the smaller "Medium" patient. And,
vice versa, the smaller "Medium" patient would
feel the garment is too baggy when wearing the "Medium"
garment designed more for the larger "Medium"
patient. When using standard fabrics, it is hard to
achieve comfort and functionality!
For the two reasons above, most
other manufacturers truthfully must provide different
size garments for the same procedures (example: one
small and one medium) because their fabric is so limiting
in elasticity (stretch). Or, if they make no recommendation,
nurses and patients have probably learned to recommend
different sizes to patients. The larger of the two garments
will be prescribed for wear immediately after surgery
and the smaller of the garments will be prescribed after
some swelling (edema) has subsided. We think you will
find this true in many cases when you talk your nurse.
First, our Marena fabric stretches
significantly more than standard fabrics. This means
that within the same garment size, our designers and
pattern makers can accommodate a much wider range of
patient body variation as well as the patient's changing
body after surgery. This achieves true patient's comfort
no matter what kind of garment size they are and, then
after surgery, patients will maintain this comfort even
as their body changes.
Second, we have extensive technical
data so we know precisely how our fabric performs (meaning
"feels on the body") as it stretches. As the
patient's body changes after surgery, we can still maintain
Marena's Certified Compression™ within the desired medical
levels.
Therefore, our recommendation that
you use preoperative measurements is based on our unique
Marena fabric and its very special properties along
with the scientific and technical data that we have
discovered in the last three years' of university and
laboratory testing.
|
