Design and development of a measurement procedure for the assessment of offloading efficacy in therapeutic walkers and with air pressure mattress.

This work aims to face up with two different problems that every day affect the clinical and hospital environments: the first one known as Pressure Ulcers affect about 30% of people in healthcare institutions. This problem is well known by clinicians but still, there is no a standard and an efficient treatment; in recent years alternating pressure air mattresses are under study and the aim was to test the efficacy of one of this mattresses but due to the restrictions of Covid-19, it was no longer possible to continue in this way. Instead, a standard laboratory procedure is proposed. The other big problem that nowadays clinicians have to face up with is the Diabetic Foot. Diabetes mellitus, in fact, is increasing globally, and it is one of the most challenging health care dilemmas in the 21st century. In 2015, 415 million people over the world were estimated to have diabetes, and this number is projected to rise to 642 million by the year 2040. The Diabetic Foot is strictly related to this pathology and there is a growing need to avoid amputations in diabetic patients. In this scenario, special walkers are going to be a first treatment to heal ulcers. In this thesis, two different types of walkers made by Optima Molliter are tested and results are very promising in fact the pressure redistribution is reached with unloading peaks of more than 50% in particular zones of the foot.