Imperial College London
Alternate

DrClaireHiggins

Faculty of Engineering, Department of Bioengineering

Reader in Tissue Regeneration
 
 
 
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Contact

 

c.higgins Website

 
 
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Location

 

Uren 319Sir Michael Uren HubWhite City Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Boyle:2020:10.1371/journal.pone.0227064,
author = {Boyle, C and Carpanen, D and Pandelani, T and Higgins, C and Masen, M and Masouros, S},
doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0227064},
journal = {PLoS One},
title = {Lateral pressure equalisation as a principle for designing support surfaces to prevent deep tissue pressure ulcers},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227064},
volume = {15},
year = {2020}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - When immobile or neuropathic patients are supported by beds or chairs, their soft tissues undergo deformations that can cause pressure ulcers. Current support surfaces that redistribute under-body pressures at vulnerable body sites have not succeeded in reducing pressure ulcer prevalence. Here we show that adding a supporting lateral pressure can counter-act the deformations induced by under-body pressure, and that this ‘pressure equalisation’ approach is a more effective way to reduce ulcer-inducing deformations than current approaches based on redistributing under-body pressure.A finite element model of the seated pelvis predicts that applying a lateral pressure to the soft tissue reduces peak von Mises stress in the deep tissue by a factor of 2.4 relative to a standard cushion (from 113 kPa to 47 kPA) — a greater effect than that achieved by using a more conformable cushion, which reduced von Mises stress to 75 kPa. Combining both a conformable cushion and lateral pressure reduced peak von Mises stresses to 25 kPa. The ratio of peak lateral pressure to peak under-body pressure was shown to regulate deep tissue stress better than under-body pressure alone. By optimising the magnitude and position of lateral pressure, tissue deformations can be reduced to that induced when suspended in a fluid.Our results explain the lack of efficacy in current support surfaces and suggest a new approach to designing and evaluating support surfaces: ensuring sufficient lateral pressure is applied to counter-act under-body pressure.
AU  - Boyle,C
AU  - Carpanen,D
AU  - Pandelani,T
AU  - Higgins,C
AU  - Masen,M
AU  - Masouros,S
DO  - 10.1371/journal.pone.0227064
PY  - 2020///
SN  - 1932-6203
TI  - Lateral pressure equalisation as a principle for designing support surfaces to prevent deep tissue pressure ulcers
T2  - PLoS One
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227064
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/75664
VL  - 15
ER  -
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