Re: If the glove fits...

On 7 Aug 2006 14:37:37 -0700, "Norm Loman" <normloman@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:


Does anyone know if gloves do anything for blisters? Can they prevent
them? Ive ben reading the thread and it seems some people think they
work for this.

I still would play without gloves, since Ive already developed thick
calluses on all my fingers, but I'm just interested if the gloves would
do anything. On a side note: How many of you all have developed
calluses in response to blisters, and where do they show up on your
hands? Mine appear between my thumb and pointing finger, where the
stick is held.

Actually, calluses are a large part of my life...lol.

As a physician practicing in wound care & hyperbaric medicine, I deal
with several people who have problems with calluses. I have always
been taught that calluses form in response to direct pressure on an
area of skin. All through medical school and residency that's what we
are told--direct pressure causes calluses. It wasn't until I trained
in wound care a few years ago, and then started practicing in the
field, that I came to realize that it is NOT direct pressure on the
skin that causes a callus to form.

Although I have researched this to some extent, I cannot find any
scientific literature to back up what I am about to say--but I am
strongly convinced that it is the truth: tangential, rather than
direct pressure, causes callus formation. I know this to be true
because I see it time after time after time after time after time...
in diabetic patients. They ALWAYS get calluses on their feet where the
shoes rub back & forth across the skin--but not necessarily on the
plantar aspect (bottoms) of their feet. Often times a diabetic patient
will have callusing on the sides of the toes and heels--instead of
only on the plantar surfaces. But unless the callus has constant
*direct* pressure on it, an ulcer typically won't form. So back to
drums...

Once I started taking engineering courses I began to realize the
mechanics of callus formation. When you play the drums and the drum
sticks slip and slide around in your fingers, there is a tangential
force imposed on the skin (and subsequently, the tissue right under
the epidermal layer of the skin), and this is dependent upon the
coefficient of friction between your skin & the drum stick. Put
another way, the rougher the sticks are, the more they move around in
your hand...the greater the chance that calluses will form. And add
some moisture to the skin and the coefficient of friction increases,
so it's even more likely that a callus will develop.

As for blisters, that's pretty simple. If the friction opposed by the
sticks on the skin overcomes the skin's ability to hold its layers
together (at the interface between the dermis and the epidermis), then
a potential space develops--one that can fill with fluid. Voila...a
blister. And if a blood vessel gets torn when the skin layers
seperate, then the blister can fill with blood and a 'blood blister'
forms.

So that's the long answer to the question of whether gloves will
prevent blisters...yes, I believe they will. By reducing the
coefficient of friction between the skin and the stick, there is less
shear force on the interface between the dermis and epidermis, and
thus it is less likely to result in tearing along that interface.

Keep in mind that this is my interpretation of the process--but I
cannot find anyone who has published in this respect. In fact, I may
actually try to publish in a medical periodical about just this thing.
However the task becomes somewhat complicated because you would really
need to do animal studies to *quanitfy* the forces needed to shear the
epidermal/dermal interface. And as one ages, their dermal papillae
flatten and they become much more likely to rupture blood vessels at
the dermal/epidermal interface, and in the sub-cutaneous space. But
different people's skin ages at different rates...so what good would
this information do?

There you go--more than you ever wanted to know about calluses and
blisters I bet. But that's my take on it...

TB


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: If the glove fits...
    ... calluses I had on my hands cracked open due to dry weather. ... I wore gloves just a few nights to get through. ... Does anyone know if gloves do anything for blisters? ... skin that causes a callus to form. ...
    (rec.music.makers.percussion)
  • Re: What is this?
    ... So nothing happens in dull weather but it causes blisters in the sun. ... The skin becomes photosensitised by the chemicals, so later on, every ... time sunshine hits that same area of skin, it will blister, exactly ... photosensitisation). ...
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    (rec.pets.dogs.health)