Investigation of Preventative Treatment Options for Pressure Ulcers

Abstract

The health care system currently lacks a product that both treats and prevents the progression of sub-dermal pressure ulcers. Not much is known about the formation of sub-dermal pressure ulcers however it is widely accepted that lack of blood supply, and thus lack of oxygen, is the cause. The purpose of this investigation is to develop a device that supplies oxygen from an external reservoir, at a controlled rate, to the location of a subdermal pressure ulcer. Since skin is a large diffusional barrier to oxygen the incorporation of microneedles into the devices allows for increased and possibly uninhibited gas diffusion. We plan on using this data to creating a device that would effectively treat the progression of pressure ulcers, or more generically a device that would be able to diffuse gas to a sub-dermal tissue.