Reversal of Deep Tissue Injury using Intermittent Electrical Stimulation

Deep tissue injury (DTI) is a dangerous form of pressure ulcer as it causes substantial subcutaneous damage before being detected. There are currently no practical and reliable forms of early detection or reversal of DTI. We propose the use of intermittent electrical stimulation (IES) to reverse the injury before it reaches the skin. Adult rats with spinal cord injury were used to assess the effect of IES on early DTI. The rats were randomly divided into two groups, the experimental group which received IES and a control group that did not receive the intervention. A DTI was produced using 20kPa of pressure applied to the triceps surae muscle of one leg. Twenty-four hours later the experimental rats were treated with IES for 2 hours, with stimulation delivered to the triceps surae muscles every 10 minutes for 10 seconds through a nerve cuff. The control rats underwent the same nerve cuff implantation procedure but without IES. A visible trend of reduced edema was seen in the loaded muscles of the IES group; however, given the small sample size, this difference was not statistically significant from the control animals. This work offers direction for the use of IES in the reversal of DTI early on in its stages of development.