What is it about?
Bandages and similar devices are commonly used to apply pressure to the limbs of people with certain types of vascular disorders. They are also a fundamental part of the treatment of venous leg ulcers. As with any form of medical treatment or therapy it is important to ensure that the correct 'dose' is applied. In the case of bandages this means that they are applied with the correct amount of tension to produce the required level of compression. Numerous devices have been developed to measure sub-bandage pressures on patients, but research has shown that the reported accuracy of the instruments used varies according to the method of calibration/validation employed. This is obviously a cause for concern.
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Why is it important?
The paper briefly describes the types of instruments involved and discusses the reasons for the variability in their reported accuracy. It shows that the test methods employed to measure accuracy may be capable of providing a reliable estimate of the performance of the pressure sensors in absolute terms in a laboratory setting, but fail to take account of the very real problems caused by the interaction that can occur between pneumatic sensors and the fabric of the overlaying bandage, leading to the production of inaccurate results. It is suggested that a new test method for assessing the performance of such devices is required which could form part of a future British or European standard
Perspectives
I have long had an interest in the use of compression devices such as bandages and compression hosiery, and especially in the use of Laplace's law which may be used to predict the performance of the materials from laboratory generated data. Sadly this is a topic which is very poorly understood by many clinicians and numerous papers have been published which make wildly inaccurate claims about the applicability of Laplace' law in the clinical situation. These comments are often based upon pressure measurements obtained with devices which do not provide reliable results. It is hoped that this publication will raise awareness of this issue and thus improve the quality of future research in this important field.
Steve Thomas
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Limitations of popular methods used for calibrating sensors for the measurement of sub-bandage pressure, Journal of Wound Care, August 2024, Mark Allen Group,
DOI: 10.12968/jowc.2021.0372.
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