Patients inspire neck collar to ease MND pain

PATIENTS WITH motor neurone disease (MND) around the world will have their pain eased and everyday tasks made easier by a ‘revolutionary’ neck collar developed in Yorkshire.

The Head Up collar is the first of its kind designed with and for patients and uses material designed initially for NASA to line space suits.

The invention was brought about during a five-year project by the University of Sheffield, Sheffield Hallam University and the NIHR Devices for Dignity MedTech Co-operative, which is hosted by Sheffield Teaching Hospitals.

Unlike those currently available, the collar offers personalised support to small muscles in the neck which are particularly vulnerable to the wasting effects of the disease.

Following a successful trial that was carried out at 10 sites around the UK and Ireland, it is now being made available around the world, with 25 NHS trusts already using the product with suitable patients.

MND destroys the cells that control movement, leaving sufferers unable to move, walk, talk and eventually breathe.

A frequent problem is the loss of strength in the neck, causing patients heads to droop to the side or the front.

Until now, many head supports resembled the restrictive braces used after a trauma – such as a car crash – which restrict movement, or soft collars which offer little support and tend to make patients feel hot and sweaty.

MND patients experiencing problems with the existing collars approached clinicians and researchers from the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust who, with the help of designers from Sheffield Hallam University, invented the collar.

Lead clinician Chris McDermott, a professor of translational neurology at the University of Sheffield and consultant neurologist at the hospital trust, said: “The Head Up collar was very much designed by patients for patients.

“We listened to what matters to them and what will have the greatest impact on their quality of life.

“The concept itself seems extremely simple and we couldn’t believe something like this hadn’t been developed and patented before.”