  Recently, a new bi-layer dressing was proposed by Urgo RID to reduce the
healing time of pressure ulcers (PU). This dressing was numerically evaluated
in previously published work. In the current work, the influence on the maximal
shear strains of modelling parameters such as the dressing local geometry, the
pressure applied by the gauze inside the wound, the wound deepness, and the
mattress stiffness, was assessed. A sensitivity analysis was performed on these
four parameters. Among all experiments, the mean maximal Green--Lagrange shear
strain was 0.29. The gauze pressure explained 60% of the model response in
terms of the volume of tissues under strains of 0.3, while the wound deepness
explained 28%. The mattress had a significant, but low impact, whereas the
dressing local geometry had no significant impact. As expected, the wound
deepness was one of the most influential parameters. The gauze turned out to be
more significant than expected. This may be explained by the large range of
values chosen for this study. The results should be extended to more subjects,
but still suggest that the gauze is a parameter that might not be neglected.
Care should also be taken in clinical practice when using gauze that could have
either a positive or negative impact on the soft tissues' strains. This may
also depend on the wound deepness.
