Summary

Objective: The retromalleolar region is often the area with most pronounced skin damage caused by chronic venous insufficiency. Due to its concavity compression therapy remains locally ineffective. This study investigates the retromalleolar interface pressure with and without padding. Method: Ten healthy subjects had a compression bandage with 40 mmHg interface pressure at rest. Interface pressure was measured with the Oxford Pressure Monitor MK II. The interface pressure at rest was controlled in the medial and lateral supramalleolar area. At the same time we measured the resting interface pressure in the medial and lateral retromalleolar area with and without pads. Results: Without pads we measured a pressure of 7 ± 1 mmHg in the medial and 10 ± 4 mmHg in the lateral retromalleolar area. By adding retromalleolar pads we documented a statistically significant increase of the pressure to 55 ± 9 (p = 0.0002) at the medial and 68 ± 20 mmHg (p = 0.00001) at the lateral retromalleolar area respectively. Conclusion: The retromalleolar space is virtually spared from compression therapy. Adding foam pads increases interface pressure to the effective range. Foam pads can be used to prevent or to treat trophic skin changes in chronic venous insufficiency of the retromalleolar area.