TY - GEN
T1 - Mechatronic Design of a Thigh-Buttock Analogue and Instrumented Soft Pad for Pressure Injury Prevention
AU - Twomey, Pat
AU - Bravo, Zachary
AU - Trkov, Mitja
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 IEEE.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - Pressure injuries in immobilized patients pose a global healthcare problem, imposing substantial economic burdens and affecting health and quality of life of those patients. While specialized pressure-redistributing mattresses and contoured foam cushions have been investigated, challenges persist. In this paper, we present mechatronic designs of (i) thighbuttock (TB) analogue and (ii) instrumented soft pad to study the contact interactions and mechanisms of pressure injury formation in a simulated human body environment. Developed full-scale TB analogue is equipped with embedded vasculature, pressure sensors, and flow sensors, designed to emulate vein collapse dynamics under normal loads. The soft pad is an actively controlled, dynamic, soft support surface discretized into multiple individual actuators with integrated pressure, temperature, and humidity sensors. The integrated sensors allow for continuous monitoring of the contact interactions and environmental conditions at the analogue-pad interface. Effects of developed normalizing pressure distribution algorithm on vein flow at various locations under bony and soft tissues, as well as monitoring of temperature and humidity that are known pressure injury formation factors are demonstrated through extensive experiments. The presented mechatronic design enables controlled physiological simulations contributing towards better understanding of pressure injury mechanisms and potentially leading towards improved pressure injury prevention.
AB - Pressure injuries in immobilized patients pose a global healthcare problem, imposing substantial economic burdens and affecting health and quality of life of those patients. While specialized pressure-redistributing mattresses and contoured foam cushions have been investigated, challenges persist. In this paper, we present mechatronic designs of (i) thighbuttock (TB) analogue and (ii) instrumented soft pad to study the contact interactions and mechanisms of pressure injury formation in a simulated human body environment. Developed full-scale TB analogue is equipped with embedded vasculature, pressure sensors, and flow sensors, designed to emulate vein collapse dynamics under normal loads. The soft pad is an actively controlled, dynamic, soft support surface discretized into multiple individual actuators with integrated pressure, temperature, and humidity sensors. The integrated sensors allow for continuous monitoring of the contact interactions and environmental conditions at the analogue-pad interface. Effects of developed normalizing pressure distribution algorithm on vein flow at various locations under bony and soft tissues, as well as monitoring of temperature and humidity that are known pressure injury formation factors are demonstrated through extensive experiments. The presented mechatronic design enables controlled physiological simulations contributing towards better understanding of pressure injury mechanisms and potentially leading towards improved pressure injury prevention.
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U2 - 10.1109/AIM55361.2024.10637126
DO - 10.1109/AIM55361.2024.10637126
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85203253340
T3 - IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics, AIM
SP - 315
EP - 320
BT - 2024 IEEE International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics, AIM 2024
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 2024 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics, AIM 2024
Y2 - 15 July 2024 through 19 July 2024
ER -