Development of Integrated Pressure and Temperature Sensing Strips for Monitoring Venous Leg Ulcer Application

Chronic ulcer such as venous leg ulcer (VLU) required an extensive healing process. It has a high recurrence rate where 33% of the recovered patients will relapse. Current treatment for VLU include compression therapy using compression bandage and stocking. Skill professional are required to apply the compression bandage therapy. An optimum compression pressure between 35mmHg and 45mmHg will aid in the healing of the VLU. Micro environment with an increase of 1.5-degree Celsius to 2.2-degree Celsius indicate an inflammation onset. Through monitoring the pressure applied onto the patient's leg and temperature of the wound site, it would help in the overall wound management and improve healing. In this work, an integrated pressure sensing strips with 24 pressure sensing elements and temperature sensors was developed to monitor of compression pressure and temperature of the wound sites. Bench-top characterization result shows that the proposed device is able to operate within the required optimum pressure range with a repeatability of less than 3.5%. The proposed device is able to detect temperature range within 28-degree Celsius to 40-degree Celsius with ADC value of 12/ degree Celsius.