Pressure ulcer is defined as an area of localized irreversible damage to the skin and underlying tissue caused by tissue loads, namely pressure, shear, friction and/or a combination of these things. The Japanese government introduced legislation in 2002 that mandated provision of adequate support surfaces for prevention and management of pressure ulcers. Many studies demonstrated that support surfaces can reduce the incidence of the pressure ulcer development. However, there has been no consensus method for evaluating the pressure redistribution properties of support surfaces. In this article, the problems which now confront us to evaluate the pressure redistribution properties of support surfaces are introduced.
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