Title :
Pressure measurement of air cushions for SCI patients
Author :
Tanimoto, Yoshio ; Takechi, Hideo ; Nagahata, Hidekazu ; Yamamoto, Hideki
Author_Institution :
Kibikogen Rehabilitation Center, Okayama, Japan
fDate :
6/1/2000 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
Pressure sores are a serious problem for spinal cord injury (SCI) patients. Many kinds of pressure-relieving cushions have been developed to distribute the patient´s weight evenly and widely. In rehabilitation medicine, the selection and the adjustment of the wheelchair cushion must be done very carefully by the medical staff to prevent pressure sores. We measured the buttock pressure distribution of SCI patients using the Tekscan pressure measurement system. In this paper, we calculate six parameters and represent these parameters on a hexagonal radar plot to evaluate the pressure distribution of wheelchair cushions. We believe this radar plot can be very useful for medical personnel when selecting and adjusting wheelchair cushions and adjusting the posture of SCI patients
Keywords :
biomedical measurement; patient care; patient rehabilitation; pressure measurement; Tekscan measurement system; air cushions; buttock pressure distribution; hexagonal radar plot; pressure measurement; pressure sores; pressure-relieving cushions; rehabilitation medicine; spinal cord injury patients; wheelchair cushion; Buttocks; Computed tomography; Helium; Personnel; Pressure measurement; Radar; Sensor phenomena and characterization; Spinal cord injury; System testing; Wheelchairs;
Journal_Title :
Instrumentation and Measurement, IEEE Transactions on
