Abstract
With the development of societies, diabetic foot ulcers have become one of the most common diseases requiring lower extremity amputation. The early treatment and prevention of diabetic foot ulcers can considerably reduce the possibility of amputation. Using footwear to redistribute and relieve plantar pressure is one of the important measures for the treatment and prevention of diabetic foot ulcers. Thus, the evaluation and prediction of the distribution of plantar pressure play an important role in designing footwears. Herein, the finite element method was used to study plantar pressure under two kinds of foot models, namely, the skeletal structure foot model and the whole foot model, to explore the influence of human bones on the pressure of the soles of the feet and obtain accurate foot pressure. Simulation results showed that under the two models, the plantar pressure and the pressure from the footwear with ethylene vinyl acetate were all reduced. The total deformation demonstrated a slight increase. These stresses are very useful as they enable the design of suitable orthotic footwear that reduces the amount of stress in individuals with diabetic foot ulcers.
Highlights
Retrospective and prospective research indicated that elevated plantar pressure is the major cause of plantar ulceration in the feet of patients with diabetes [1,2]
The EVA polymer could be used to decrease the risk of diabetic foot ulcers in patients with diabetes
Finite element methods were used to determine the effects of two different models on footwear and build a mathematical model to determine the insole thickness using EVA to reduce the plantar pressure distribution
Summary
Retrospective and prospective research indicated that elevated plantar pressure is the major cause of plantar ulceration in the feet of patients with diabetes [1,2]. Reducing plantar pressure to prevent the occurrence of diabetic foot ulcer by using footwear is currently a hot topic in research [3,4]. The mechanism of action of footwear in relieving foot pressure and preventing ulcer is not clear. It does play a certain protective role, which is a consensus [5,6,7]. Biomechanical analysis of the foot is the first step in the research and design work of footwear [1,10]. Some scholars used the finite element method for simulation analysis due to the difficulty of actual measurement, the inaccuracy of the actual acquisition, and the unrealizable measurement of internal stress [11,12,13]
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