Article

For individuals with a spinal cord injury (SCI) who depend on a wheelchair for
mobility, sitting-acquired pressure ulcers (PUs) are a common and
life-endangering complication. In the short time following an SCI,
pathoanatomical and pathophysiological changes that affect the weight-bearing
tissues of the buttocks may increase the risk for PUs, exposing this
already-at-risk population to the additional potential risk caused by soft tissue
scarring. In this work, we evaluated the biomechanical efficacies of an
air-cell-based (ACB) cushion for individuals with SCI who have previously
experienced PUs that healed but left scars in their soft tissues. We used 11
finite element model variants of the buttocks describing various scar shapes and
severities to study the effects of the scars on soft tissue stresses during
sitting on an ACB cushion and the resulting theoretical risk for the reoccurrence
of PUs. Interestingly, the ACB cushion induced, in general, lower peak stress
values in the soft tissues of the buttocks when scarring was present with respect
to the stress levels in the (nonscarred) reference case. Our simulations
therefore suggest that the ACB cushion is generally better protecting patients
with a history of severe PUs manifested by large, possibly deep tissue scarring in their buttocks.
- Escarres

Langue : ANGLAIS