The PROVALEŽ Cup Helps Cancer Patients
For More Information FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Reliant Medical Products, Inc.
1-800-757-7579
www.reliantmp.com June 9, 2003
The PROVALEŽ Cup Helps Cancer Patients
The jogger who gulps down a bottle of water after a run never gives a thought to what he or she is doing. Neither does the football fan who chugs a soft drink at the game or the coffee shop patron who sips a latte. To these people, swallowing is just a reflex, no more complicated than blinking or breathing.
But for some patients at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y., swallowing can be the most complicated physical activity they perform.
Patients suffering from head and neck cancer often find that the treatment they are undergoing - surgical, radiation, chemotherapy or a combination of all three - can have an effect on their swallowing, says James Smaldino, a speech language pathologist at the Institute.
"After certain types of head and neck cancer surgery, some people may have difficulty even sensing where foods are in their mouths," says Smaldino, "let alone being able to control them." The Roswell Park facility is Americas oldest cancer treatment, research and education center. It was founded in 1898. Today, it is one of 39 designed comprehensive cancer centers chosen by the National Cancer Institute.
Liquids especially are problematical, but Smaldino says The PROVALEŽ Cup, a new product which measures out liquids takes the guesswork out of swallowing.
"You can't just tell someone who may have had extensive neck and / or oral surgery to take a small sip because they may no longer have a reliable way of determining what a small or large sip is, or even what's hot or cold," says Smaldino.
Water is the ultimate need for the body; in fact we cannot survive without it. Some of these patients may suffer from dehydration and malnutrition, which further complicates their medical conditions and hampers healing.
The PROVALEŽ Cup is designed to assist the patient on the road to recovery, or long term, as needed. The cup delivers a small, fixed amount of liquid, which helps the patient do what so many of us take for granted: to drink when they are they are thirsty.
The patented design - resembling a travel coffee mug with two adjustable handles -allows enough nose clearance to minimize head movement, but more importantly, the cup accurately measures the amount of liquid being taken in. "One sip equals one teaspoon," says Smaldino, who has been using the cup with his patients for the past six months.
Since both hot and cold liquids can be dispensed from the cup, Smaldino says it is not just a rehabilitation tool in post-surgical treatment, but a way for patients to maintain normal eating habits after they have been discharged.
The cup, a result of three years of development that included input from speech language pathologists and occupational therapists, is easy to assemble and just as easily comes apart for dishwasher cleaning.
The PROVALEŽ Cup is a product of Reliant Medical Products, a specialty medical products company founded in 1999 in Birmingham, Ala. Reliant initial focus is on products for people with swallowing difficulties.
