Résumé : |
In recent years, photonic fabrics have been developed and applied to illumination, decoration, flexible display, phototherapy and sensing. O-blanket is a soft sleeping bag developed at Hong Kong Polytechnic University for treatment of neonatal jaundice, which affects approximately 60% of new born babies. The current phototherapy treatment is conducted by nurses in hospital wards. Thus these babies need to stay in hospital at least a few days for treatments. O-blanket has a sleeping-bag design, meaning a baby can obtain the treatment while sleeping inside it. It is a comfort, air-permeable phototherapy device which is easy to operate at hospital and ideal for home remedy. The bag has a double-layer fabric made from side-emitting polymer optical fibers (POF's), meeting the requirement of irradiation intensity by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Elk Grove Village, Illinois/USA. During the phototherapy treatment, heat is not generated because the fabrics only conduct light from an external source, and protective goggles are not required due to the sleeping-bag design. The light-emitting fabric and the cover can be disinfected and washed separately. |