Here are dramatic photos showing the value of ShearBan® and ENGO® in helping to prevent skin trauma. As mentioned in a previous post, research on ShearBan® is being done at the world renowned Lerner Research Institute at the Cleveland Clinic. We now have results of preliminary tests. In those tests, the Cleveland Clinic used a machine known as the Universal Musculoskeletal Simulator. The Simulator allows researchers to simulate a variety of loading conditions on cadaver joints by using motorized actuators to simulate muscle forces and simultaneously contact the joint with an external load. In other words, the Simulator can make a cadaver foot “walk.”

Using the Simulator, the researchers at the Cleveland Clinic compared a cadaver foot contacting a bare force plate and a force plate on which ShearBan® had been adhesively attached.     

Figure 1 shows the plantar surface of the cadaver foot after 25 cycles of contact with the bare force plate. Notice the significant damage to the plantar surface of the cadaver

foot.

Figure 2 shows the plantar surface of the cadaver foot after 50 cycles of contact with the force plate covered with ShearBan®. The skin has no visible damage.

These results are one more bit of evidence that the low friction interfaces in ShearBan® and ENGO® protect the feet from skin trauma. These results show why ShearBan® and ENGO® technologies offer so much promise for preventing and treating all kinds of pathologies resulting from friction and shear: diabetic foot ulcers or ulcerations, blisters, corns, excessive callus, and other hotspots.