A short history of progression of research into seating and postural support

Numerous solutions for cushioning the contact area between product and user have been designed during the past centuries, but only in recent decades has systematic research been conducted on the underlying mechanical principles and the consequences of mechanical load imposed on the human skin and muscular skeletal system. In this paper a short history and future perspectives on the research in pressure ulcers is discussed and innovations in the field in the perspective of the history of the innovations are presented. Research in the past century on pressure ulcers has not (yet) led to the eradication of the problem. What can be observed is that the oxygen supply and blood flow to the cells has been studied in many different ways and reported throughout the last century. After the internal capillary pressure was measured in the famous study of Landis, external interface pressures on the tissue was the object of many studies. In these studies different devices that could measure interface pressure were used, but they mainly introduced more sophisticated and innovative means to measured blood flow and oxygenation. After decades of pressure measurements, devices were designed that could measure the missing component of the mechanical load, namely shear. Recently, commercially available shear sensors have been designed, and will, with no doubt, lead to many studies on the combined mechanical load on the tissue. However, although they are interrelated, still a large gap exists between measurements on external mechanical load and the study on the etiology of pressure ulcers.