In vivo measurement of compression bandage interface pressures: the first study

Compression therapy has precise technical characteristics but in vivo pressures exerted by bandages are still poorly understood.

To perform in vivo pressure measurements of different compression bandages bearing different technical characteristics with different application methods.

Interface pressure was measured on the lower limb of 20 healthy women at 3 different points (B1, C and F) using 6 compression techniques (stockings, non-elastic bandage, elastic bandages with 2 technical characteristics and 3 application methods), and in 3 positions.

All elastic compression bandages respected the principle of graduated pressure along the length of the limb (P<0.0001), but not the non-elastic bandage. The pressures increase significantly (P<0.0001) between the supine position and the sitting or standing position, especially with the non-elastic compression bandage. There is a marked variation in pressures between subjects for some bandages (non-elastic and elastic applied using the figure-of-eight technique). The pressure increases significantly with the number of bandage overlaps (P<0.01).

Elastic and non-elastic bandages behave differently from one another, and non-elastic bandages not appearing to comply with medical recommendations concerning graduated pressure. There is a high level of variability between subjects for some compression bandages (non-elastic and figure-of-eight methods).