Using Homemade Pressure Device to Improve Plantar Pressure—A Case Study on the Patient with Lower Limb Lymphedema

Jong-Chen Chen,Ying-Sheng Lin,Yao-Te Wang

doi:10.3390/app11209629

Abstract

Feet play a very important and indispensable role in people’s lives. Patients with lymphedema often suffer from collapsed (or even deformed) foot arches as a result of lower extremity edema. This result will change the normal pressure distribution on the soles of their feet, which will affect their mobility and physical health. When the patient does not know that the distribution of pressure on the sole of the foot has changed significantly, the deformation of the sole of the foot will become severe. In response to this problem, this research team hopes to use a set of self-made sensor insoles to help to understand the plantar pressure points in different situations or actions. The subject invited in this study was a patient with lower extremity edema. The entire study was carried out with the consent of the patient, the guidance of the physician and the approval of the Ethics Committee of National Taiwan University Hospital (No: 201805068 RINB, date: 18 June 2018). This study uses this self-made sensor insole to analyze the plantar pressure distribution of the patient before and after the operation of lower extremity edema. The results show that the operation can effectively improve the high foot pressure in the center and rear of the foot area during different sports (standing, walking and biking). This not only increases its stability when standing and walking, but also significantly and effectively improves its walking speed and step distance.

Highlights

Feet play a very important and indispensable role in people’s lives
It is generally believed that one can more or less directly or indirectly understand the medical cause of the patient’s disease through the signal condition of the foot pressure [4]. There is another school of scholars who proposed that plantar pressure can be used to assess and treat the related pain problems of foot patients [5,6]
The cost of the foot pressure-sensing system developed in this research team is about USD 200

Summary

Introduction

Feet play a very important and indispensable role in people’s lives. This is because on the one hand they allow us to move freely, and on the other hand they bear the ground reaction force caused by the weight. A patient with lymphedema is more likely to have foot arch deformity due to lower extremity edema or lack of protection of the arch This result might cause the patient to have plantar discomfort, or even other parts of the body will be further damaged or collapsed. The entire treatment of lymphedema, from its cause to possible treatment and even post-treatment management, is a long-term process In this lengthy process, it is very important to collect and understand the patient’s sole condition in a timely and appropriate manner. This study hopes to detect the plantar pressure of overweight patients with lower extremity edema through a set of self-made pressure sensor insoles.

Subject

Results

Using Artificial Arches

Conclusions