In this master's thesis, we investigated the effect of applying negative pressure to the human forearm. The aim was to numerically demonstrate how such loading influences changes in interstitial fluid and how this relates to the treatment of edema. In the introductory part, we reviewed the anatomy of the affected region and presented the fundamental mechanisms of edema formation and interstitial fluid dynamics. A review of similar studies that use numerical models to investigate human physiology was conducted, and based on this knowledge, a simplified model was developed to simulate the effects of negative pressure on the forearm. Poroelastic finite elements (FE) were used to model the skin and soft tissue in order to observe the interstitial fluid response. The key simulation results indicate that the application of negative pressure causes variations in the pore pressure distribution across the region. This is reflected in the changes in interstitial fluid velocity, which is a major contributing factor in edema development. Results from simulations with continuous loading show that the interstitial fluid velocity reaches 2.5 µm/s in the central region of the soft tissue. In comparable cyclic loading scenarios, the interstitial fluid velocities are lower, and a smaller portion of the tissue is activated, which aligns well with findings reported in the literature.
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