Pressure ulcers significantly contribute to the diminished quality of life and substantial disability in people with spinal cord injury (SCI). A broad consensus among clinicians and researchers has been reached that the best approach to reducing this burden is to implement an effective preventive treatment that would greatly reduce the incidence. The preventative intervention should eliminate/diminish causative factors and pathways involved with pressure ulcer development. The objective of this thesis is to explore the relationship between sacral skin blood flow and transcutaneous oxygenation in response to causative factors of pressure ulcers (i.e. thermal stress, mechanical stress, and sympathetic modulations) in five neurologically intact subjects.
Two tests were performed to analyze the relationship between sacral skin blood flow and transcutaneous oxygenation. In test 1, skin blood flow and transcutaneous oxygenation were measured while subjects underwent orthostatic stimulation. Results from test 1 showed that both the level of heat used and the location of testing effects how skin blood flow and transcutaneous oxygenation respond to orthostatic stimulation. In test 2, skin blood flow and transcutaneous oxygenation were measured while external pressure was applied. Results from test 2 showed that a significant increase in peak skin blood flow and TcPO2 (p<0.05) occurred on average 588 and 298 seconds, respectively, following removal of occluding pressure when the skin is heated to 44 degrees C; however, at 37 degrees C, skin blood flow and transcutaneous oxygenation showed a significant peak increase (p<0.05) following removal of occluding pressure at 28 and 404 seconds, respectively.
