Pressure measurement of air cushions for SCI patients

Pressure sores are a serious problem for spinal cord injury (SCI) patients. Many kinds of pressure-relieving cushions have been developed to distribut e the patient's weight evenly and widely, In rehabilitation medicine, the s election and the adjustment of the wheelchair cushion must be done very car efully by the medical staff to prevent pressure sores. We measured the butt ock pressure distribution of SCI patients using the Tekscan pressure measur ement system. In this paper, we calculate six parameters and represent thes e parameters on a hexagonal radar plot to evaluate the pressure distributio n of wheelchair cushions, We believe this radar plot can be very useful for medical personnel when selecting and adjusting wheelchair cushions and adj usting the posture of SCI patients.