Tribological behavior of scar skin and prosthetic skin in vivo

The interfacial rub phenomena between scar skin and other external surfaces are a prevalent problem in everyday life. Literature on the tribological behavior of scar skin is scarce to date. In this study, the tribological behavior and comfort sensations of residual limb scar skin, prosthetic wearing skin and healthy limb skin were investigated in vivo by using UMT-II multi-specimen Micro-Tribometer under the simulated rubbing conditions between the residual limb skin and prosthetic socket. The results showed that the tribological behavior and comfort sensations differ remarkably among the three kinds of skin. Due to the changes of skin histological structure and surface roughness, higher the friction coefficient with higher fluctuation has been obtained for the scar skin during testing. The friction coefficients of the prosthetic wearing skin are close to those of the healthy skin, but have a slight fluctuation compared to those of the healthy skin. The scar and healthy skins are sensitive to the comfortless sensations induced by rubbing. The prosthetic wearing skin is tolerant to the comfortless sensations.