評估床墊與壓瘡相關性之輔助裝置設計

Design of an Auxiliary Device for Evaluating Clinical Support Surfaces on Pressure Ulcer Prevention

壓瘡常見於行動不便之老年人或長期臥床病患，其治療程序繁複、耗時且醫療費用龐大，並常伴隨併發症，增加死亡率。人體組織與床墊之間的壓力是造成壓瘡的主要原因，因此評估床墊的適用性成為臨床醫務人員之重要工作。本研究主要的目在於嶺展一簡易型的床墊界面評估模式，藉由一簡易量測器具取得床墊之負荷與變形量關係，配合薦椎部位之有限元素模型，分析人體組織承受之壓應力，進而推估組織承受壓力之容忍時間，提供醫務人員在鋪設及維護床墊之參考。結果顯示：本研究提出之簡易型床墊壓力測量模式應可適用於醫療院所及長期照顯機構，然而仍須更多研究數據之支持。

Pressure ulcer has a high incidence in a patient of disability or bedridden elder. The pressure ulcer does not only need a huge amount of time and medical expense to treat, it is associated with a high incidence of complaints and led causes of mortality. The interface pressure between soft tissue and mattress is the main factor to cause the pressure ulcer. Evaluating the mechanical property of the mattress for the patient is an important work of the nursing staff. The objectives of this study were to establish a simple-operation procedure to evaluate the interface pressure. In the testing procedure, the relationship of loading and deformation of the mattress was measured by a mechanical gauge. In addition, a finite element model on sacrum portion was established to analyse the stress in the tissue in order to inferring the injury tolerance time of the tissue. The results showed that the proposed approach might be a practicable way to assist the care worker preventing the occurrence of pressure ulcers, but it needed more detailed studies to verify.