Floatation

Floatation is the ability of a therapeutic support surface to create a sensation and therapeutic effect similar to “floating” the patient across the mattress surface rather than allowing body weight to concentrate on isolated pressure points. In wound care and pressure injury management, floatation helps distribute body weight more evenly, reducing peak interface pressures that can compromise blood flow, damage tissue, and delay healing.

For patients with Stage III, Stage IV, and unstageable pressure injuries, effective floatation is critical because it helps protect vulnerable tissue while supporting immersion, envelopment, and overall pressure redistribution.

Pro-Daptive™ SensorCell™ provides advanced floatation therapy through its adaptive floatation architecture and independently responsive SensorCell™ technology. The system is designed to allow the patient to settle naturally into the support surface while continuously redistributing pressure across a larger contact area. Rather than relying on fixed therapy settings, Pro-Daptive™ dynamically responds to the patient’s body shape, positioning, movement, and localized pressure needs in real time.

This adaptive response helps:

• Reduce concentrated tissue loading
• Improve pressure redistribution
• Enhance immersion and envelopment
• Minimize shear and friction
• Support tissue perfusion and patient comfort
• Maintain therapeutic support across changing patient conditions

Air Fluidized Therapy (AFT) has long been considered a benchmark for floatation therapy because it uses fluidized media to create a low-pressure support environment that allows the patient to immerse deeply into the surface. AFT systems are highly effective at providing generalized immersion, envelopment, and floatation for complex wounds but there are many drawbacks to the way AFT is delivered. This includes issues with surface stabilization, repositioning and transfer.

However, traditional AFT systems do not provide individualized or targeted pressure management. Their therapeutic behavior is largely uniform across the surface and cannot dynamically adapt to localized anatomical or clinical needs.

Pro-Daptive™ builds upon the core therapeutic principles associated with AFT by delivering immersion, envelopment, and floatation while also incorporating adaptive pressure redistribution and customizable support control. This allows Pro-Daptive™ to provide a more responsive therapeutic environment that continuously adjusts to the patient in real time, helping optimize protection of vulnerable tissue while supporting advanced wound care treatment goals.