Stiffening of the gluteal muscle increased the intramuscular stress: An in-silico implication of deep tissue injury

Jingyi Jia; Shengbo Gong; Aili Zhang; Liping Jiang; Yifei Yao

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e13459

Stiffening of the gluteal muscle increased the intramuscular stress: An in-silico implication of deep tissue injury

Heliyon. 2023 Feb 3;9(2):e13459. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e13459. eCollection 2023 Feb.

Authors

Jingyi Jia^{1

2}, Shengbo Gong^{1

2}, Aili Zhang¹, Liping Jiang³, Yifei Yao^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ School of Biomedical Engineering, Med-X Research Institute, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 1954 Huashan Road, Shanghai 200030, China.
² Engineering Research Center of Digital Medicine and Clinical Translation, Ministry of Education, 1954 Huashan Road, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, China.
³ Nursing Department, Xinhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 1665 Kongjiang Road, Shanghai 200092, China.

Abstract

Objectives: Deep tissue injury is a common form of pressure ulcers in muscle tissues under bony prominences caused by sustained pressure or shear, which has a great impact on patients with restricted mobility such as spinal cord injury. Frequent spasms in spinal cord injury patients featured by muscle stiffening may be one of the factors leading to deep tissue injury. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the gluteal muscle shear modulus and intramuscular compressive/shear stress/strain.

Methods: A semi-3D finite element model of the human buttock was established using COMSOL software and the acquired biomechanical data were analyzed through Pearson correlation and Spearman correlation.

Results: Results showed that the compressive stress, strain energy density, and average von Mises stress increased with the increase of the gluteal muscle shear modulus.

Conclusion: These results may indicate muscle stiffening caused by muscle spasms could lead to higher deep tissue injury development risk as well as shed light on effective treatments for relieving muscular sclerosis mechanically.

Keywords: Deep tissue injury; Finite element analysis; Intramuscular stress; Muscle shear modulus; Muscle spasm.