Compression Therapy in Human Body Applications: A Systematic Review from Principles to Practice

Compression therapy is a common approach of managing diverse pathologies by application of controlled pressure to the body. However, existing studies have investigated compression therapy within individual pathologies. This gap makes it difficult to translate clinical findings into general design principles for compression devices. Therefore, this review synthesizes and assesses existing literature on the biomechanical effects, theoretical models, and characteristics of compression for three representative pathologies, namely Chronic Venous Insufficiency (CVI), edema, and ligament injury, aiming to identify cross-pathological overarching insights that provide unified principles for compression device design. The literature review was conducted using Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, and a combination of four search strings to retrieve peer-reviewed studies. Eighty-six studies were included addressing the effects and characteristics of compression (CVI: 10, edema: 20, ligament injury: 25) and theoretical models of compression (31 studies). Across three pathologies, overarching insights were identified. First, compression produces three main effects: reducing transmural pressure, increasing interstitial pressure, and increasing joint stiffness. Second, theoretical models collectively show that compression regulates geometry, fluid balance, and stiffness of tissue. Third, therapeutic effects depend on compression characteristics such as mode of operation (static or dynamic), distribution (cyclical, graduated, or uniform), pressure level, and location of compression. This review provides a novel perspective for developing more effective and versatile compression devices in the future.