Circulatory and mechanical response of skin to loading.

We investigated the tolerance of skin to mechanical loading over the tibia and over the tibialis anterior muscle in 12 normal volunteers. Surface load, subcutaneous tissue pressure, skin deformation under load, and transcutaneous partial pressure of oxygen (TcPO2) were simultaneously monitored. The skin over bone showed a significantly stiffer load deformation relationship than the skin over muscle (p less than 0.001). The displacement required to reduce TcPO2 to 0 over bone, 1.1 +/- 0.3 mm (mean +/- standard deviation), was significantly less than that required over tibialis anterior muscle, 5.4 +/- 1.1 mm (p less than 0.001). The applied pressure required to reduce TcPO2 to 0 was significantly greater for skin over muscle (71 +/- 16 mm Hg) than for skin over bone (42 +/- 8 mm Hg) (p less than 0.001). However, the subcutaneous pressure required to reduce TcPO2 to 0 was not significantly different for skin over muscle (36 +/- 11 mm Hg) than for skin over bone (28 +/- 10 mm Hg) (p greater than 0.05). Our results indicate that skin over muscle tolerates greater locally applied loads and deformations because the pressure is lower within the tissue than when similar loads and deformation are applied to skin over bone. Cutaneous perfusion, as indicated by TcPO2, seems to be linked more closely to the subcutaneous tissue pressure than to the surface load or deformations. These results provide some data for predicting mechanical and physiologic response to locally applied loads such as those that may be encountered in prosthetic wear.