Measuring In Skin Expansion

This article describes the development of an apparatus to measure the internal pressure of a skin expander as it is being infiltrated with a saline solution. This device improves the skin expansion process and helps the research in the field, measuring the increase of the internal pressure as the volume of the fluid injected is increased. The data collected by the apparatus generates curves relating the pressure and the volume of liquid inside the skin expander, allowing a better study of the skin behavior, proving that, even in different regions of the body, the skin has a very similar behavior when subjected to tension. The device was properly tested and proved to be very stable, reliable and accurate. There is no other apparatus with the same purpose in the market, so the device can greatly assist in research involving skin expansion and plastic reconstructive surgery. The final objective of this research is to make the device to perform the expansion autonomously, speeding up the process as a whole.