Shear forces might be an inescapable part of life and movement — but what if large portions of those shear forces were absorbed by a multi-layer dressing that keeps skin and underlying tissues safe?
That’s the investigation at the core of new research published in International Wound Journal. The study discusses the efficacy of Smith+Nephew’s ALLEVYN COMPLETE CARE soft silicone multi-layer wound dressings in reducing the risk of pressure injuries on patients’ heels.
The study published on Sept. 30 noted that the dressing’s “advanced structure” facilitates “the dissipation of shear forces through internal layer-on-layer frictional sliding within the dressing.”
Researchers used experimental frictional energy absorber effectiveness (FEAE) testing and computational finite element modeling to quantify “the capacity of this dressing to mitigate strain and stress concentrations in the soft tissues of the supported posterior heel.
“The dressing demonstrated considerable frictional sliding between its adjacent layers, resulting in FEAE = 93% under simulated, clinically relevant usage conditions. This was associated with the dissipation of shear forces and alleviation of strain/stress concentrations in the skin and underlying soft tissues below the dressing.”
The study’s authors were Darla Orlova, Aleksei, Orlov, and Amit Gefen, all from the school of biomedical engineering, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel. Smith+Nephew supported the research study.
A further complication with pressure injuries on the heel, they added, was that some begin as deep tissue injuries.
“Through this pathogenesis, soft tissue damage begins and progresses below intact skin and is challenging to timely diagnose and clinically classify,” the authors said of deep tissue injuries. “It is only after the breakdown of the skin that the extent of tissue destruction becomes apparent and is typically classified as full-thickness tissue damage. For this reason, it is critically important to protect the heels of patients who are categorized as being at risk.”
A 2022 study — Incidence of pressure injuries in fracture patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis — published in the Journal of Tissue Viability reported that 19.9% of all pressure injuries occurred on patients’ heels. Only sacrococcygeal areas (56.7%) were more common pressure injury locations.
