Mechanical engineering researchers at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering have designed a mattress that helps prevent bedsores by alternating pressure across the body and, at times, increasing peak pressure rather than reducing it to restore blood flow.
Common bedsore treatment protocols involve moving and turning bedridden individuals every two hours. However, this recommendation is both costly and cumbersome, leading to inconsistent care and potential injuries for caregivers. Researchers at UCLA have developed a prototype alternating-pressure mattress to address this problem, as detailed in a study published in Science Robotics.
Pressure ulcers, also known as bedsores, arise from consistent pressure on a body part that impedes the blood flow. They are particularly troublesome for people who are immobilized and lying in bed for long periods.
Bedsores are a serious health concern, causing more than 60,000 deaths annually in the U.S., according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, part of the Department of Health and Human Services. In acute care facilities across the country, 2.5 million people are treated for bedsores each year at a cost of $11 billion—exceeded only by the treatment costs for cancer and cardiovascular disease.
Although they can develop wherever prolonged pressure is applied, bedsores are most common on the skin over bony areas such as the sacrum, heel, elbow and knee.
“We set out to build an affordable, versatile and practical mattress that would be much more effective in preventing pressure ulcers,” said study leader Jonathan Hopkins, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at UCLA Samueli.
Hopkins’ team previously created a bed featuring 1,260 linear actuators, which can be independently controlled to test how different surface patterns affect blood flow and pressure. The research findings led to the design of the alternating-pressure mattress that utilizes a lattice of compliant mechanisms, which enables smooth transitions between two alternating checkerboard-like surface…
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