Pressure Ulcers: Causes, Prevention and Treatment

This assignment provides an in-depth look at pressure ulcers, a serious healthcare concern particularly affecting elderly patients in various care settings. It delves into the causes of these localized skin or tissue damages, including environmental factors like pressure, shearing, and friction, as well as intrinsic factors such as malnutrition and impaired sensory perception. The text highlights the importance of risk assessment scales and interdisciplinary approaches to prevention and treatment, emphasizing strategies like repositioning patients, using support surfaces, and wound care techniques like debridement.

Running head- PRESSURE ULCER
An abstract on pressure ulcer
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1PRESSURE ULCER
Pressure ulcer is a serious healthcare problem found among elders present in long-term
care, acute care and home care settings. They are localized damages that occur to the skin or
underlying tissue present over a bony surface (Gill, 2015). This damage occurs due to
environmental factors such as, pressure along with shearing or friction. It is a major problem in
UAE and the IPUP survey showed 100,623 patients in 2013 with pressure ulcer (Tariq, 2014).
Sustained pressure leads to a complete or partial obstruction of blood capillaries, causing
ischemia due to deprivation of oxygen and nutrients. Hypotension, diabetes mellitus, immobility,
spinal cord injuries, malnutrition, and peripheral vascular disease are some of the intrinsic factors
(Coleman et al., 2013). Impaired sensory perception alters consciousness that may reduce
mobility. Certain political factors can affect the prevention of pressure ulcer such as, scarcity of
pressure reducing equipment, lack of healthcare resources economic crisis, war, homelessness,
and limited food and transportation facilities in UAE. Physical limitations also lead to social
isolation, which in turn can give rise to these bed sores. One of the prevention activities involves
use of risk assessment scales to identify individuals at a risk of developing pressure sores. Such a
scale presents an accurate record of the progress and risk status (Guy, 2012). Wound care nurses
adopt an interdisciplinary approach to provide care for such patients. The major prevention
strategies include repositioning the patient, using support surfaces to help them sit in a way that
protects their skin (Gillespie et al., 2012). The skin is assessed, followed by cleansing of the
wound and a dressing is applied to keep the area moist (Moore & Cowman, 2012). Debridement
is another approach that is followed to keep the wound free from any damaged or dead tissues
(Chou et al., 2013). Thus, there is a need to revisit and identify the factors that prevent ulcer
healing. Furthermore, a risk assessment format should be followed at all levels of healthcare
system.

2PRESSURE ULCER
References
Chou, R., Dana, T., Bougatsos, C., Blazina, I., Starmer, A. J., Reitel, K., & Buckley, D. (2013).
Pressure ulcer risk assessment and prevention. Ann Intern Med, 159, 28-38.
Coleman, S., Gorecki, C., Nelson, E. A., Closs, S. J., Defloor, T., Halfens, R., ... & Nixon, J.
(2013). Patient risk factors for pressure ulcer development: systematic
review. International journal of nursing studies, 50(7), 974-1003.
Gill, E. C. (2015). Reducing hospital acquired pressure ulcers in intensive care. BMJ quality
improvement reports, 4(1), u205599-w3015.
Gillespie, B. M., Chaboyer, W. P., McInnes, E., Kent, B., Whitty, J. A., & Thalib, L. (2012).
Repositioning for pressure ulcer prevention in adults. Cochrane Database Syst
Rev20144Cd009958.
Guy, H. (2012). Pressure ulcer risk assessment. Nursing times, 108(4), 16-18.
Moore, Z., & Cowman, S. (2012). Pressure ulcer prevalence and prevention practices in care of
the older person in the Republic of Ireland. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 21(3‐4), 362-
371.
Tariq, G. (2014). Pressure ulcer prevalence and prevention in Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, Abu
Dhabi. Wounds, 1(1), 1-7.