Design of a pressure sensing and mapping infant head surrogate system

Pressure ulcers are injuries to the skin and underlying tissue that develop from several factors, including prolonged pressures from contact with relatively hard surfaces. These unfortunate wounds have been occurring on infant patients while receiving treatments with ill-fitting respiratory medical devices. The prevalence of these ulcers are often attributed to the limited size selection of these devices. Frequently, extra measures are taken to secure improperly sized devices by over-tightening, which amplifies the issue of pressure ulcer development.;In this thesis, a pressure mapping surrogate device with the tactile feel and form of an infantile head is developed to quantitatively assess pressures from over-tightened respiratory devices. Details are presented on the development of custom sensing electronics and a mapping algorithm which together constitute the surrogate head system. The sensing and mapping technologies are tested by embedding them into a flat surface covered by synthetic soft tissue for indentation testing. Validation of the flat sensing surface is performed by comparing experimental indentation pressure maps with predicted pressures from a finite elemental model of similar setup.;Following calibration of the sensing system on a flat surface, a three dimensional surrogate infant head with embedded sensors is developed and used to evaluate the pressures from two commercially available nasal masks. The generated pressure maps prove the concept of a custom pressure mapping apparatus. The quantitative data collected from the surrogate head can improve both future designs and installation methods of the tested respiratory device.