How much do you know about preventing pressure sores?

Pressure sores are a global health issue and one of the issues that need to be focused on in clinical nursing work. Pressure sores themselves are not primary diseases, but are mostly caused by bedridden patients who do not receive good care. They will increase the patient's pain, aggravate the underlying condition, prolong the course of the disease, and even cause sepsis after secondary infection, which is life-threatening. Once a pressure sore occurs, it is extremely harmful to the patient's health and safety. Therefore, the prevention and care of pressure sores has become a research hotspot in the nursing field. So what else do we not know about the prevention of pressure sores? Next, I will talk to you about those things about pressure sores!

1. Things about pressure ulcers!

The latest definition of pressure sores is localized damage to the skin and (or) subcutaneous soft tissues caused by pressure or pressure combined with shear force, usually occurring at bony prominences or where the skin contacts medical devices, with different locations prone to different occurrences. According to surveys, 95% of them occur in the lower body, especially the sacrum and coccyx, and ischial tuberosity, which are the sites with the highest incidence. Pressure sores are clinically divided into six stages, with different degrees of injury in different stages. The initial characteristic of pressure sores is that intact skin appears erythema that does not fade when pressed. If the body position is not changed in time and continues to be compressed, the local skin will appear dark red, millet, purple changes that do not fade, or congested blisters will appear. If it continues to deteriorate, the integrity of the skin will be damaged, and a superficial crater appearance of light red to pink will appear. In severe cases, muscles and bones may even be touched, or the wound may be completely covered by eschar. Do not underestimate pressure sores. Many patients in life lack knowledge of the prevention and care of pressure sores, which aggravates the occurrence of the disease and prolongs the patient's condition.

2. What causes pressure ulcers to occur frequently?

Recently, a netizen sent a private message saying that his uncle had been in a coma for more than two weeks due to a stroke. After waking up, he stayed in the hospital for more than a week before returning home to recuperate. After returning home, my grandfather rarely went out for a walk because he was in a bad mood. Three days ago, he was admitted to the hospital because of bedsores. I want to know what caused this bedsore? Are you really too worried about him?

Through observation, people found that it is not necessarily the mattress and bed that cause pressure sores. In fact, the culprit is pressure. So people renamed it pressure sores. At this stage, the focus of prevention and treatment is to eliminate pressure. In fact, the main causes of pressure sores are as follows: 1. Impaired mobility. When a patient is bedridden for a long time or sits in a wheelchair for a long time, the skin will rub against the sheets or the surface of the wheelchair or produce shear force. Once the skin is abraded, the body's sweat or urine will enter the abraded skin, causing pressure sores. 2. Malnutrition. If the food intake is small or the nutrition intake is insufficient, in this case, it will cause muscle atrophy, resulting in a decrease in subcutaneous tissue fat. Once the body is under pressure, the skin with protruding bones may not be able to withstand the pressure of the body. In this case, it does not play a certain protective role in this part, causing patients to develop pressure sores.

3. Pressure ulcers are so terrible, do we have any good ways to prevent them?

As the world's population ages, pressure sores are becoming an increasingly prominent problem in human society, and they have also brought about a huge social burden! In order to make more people understand and pay attention to pressure sores, and to do a good job in daily prevention, we can provide patients with standardized pressure sore diagnosis, treatment and care, improve the awareness and care ability of pressure sore prevention, and improve the quality of life of patients. So what do we need to do to prevent pressure sores?

First of all, we need to know which patients are prone to bedsores, including the following types of patients: hemiplegic patients, the elderly, patients with spinal cord injuries, thin and malnourished patients, obese patients, weak patients, edema patients, pain patients, patients with plaster fixation, patients with incontinence, patients with fever, and patients using sedatives, etc. From actual work, it is found that the prevention of bedsores requires five diligences: frequent tidying, frequent turning, frequent replacement, frequent observation, and frequent scrubbing.

(1) Change of body position: Please turn over at least once every 2 hours, and once every hour if necessary.

(2) Choose a suitable support surface: You can use a turning pillow to lie on your side, you can use an air cushion for full-body decompression, or you can use a water cushion and foot decompression pad on the bony protrusions. Choose a suitable anti-pressure sore product based on the actual situation.

(3) When urinary incontinence occurs, be careful to avoid excrement irritating the skin. Clean up urine and feces in time to keep the skin clean. Massage of the skin is not recommended. Massage can cause local acute inflammatory reactions.

(4) Pay attention to the technique when turning over or moving. Do not drag, pull, tug, push, etc. Also, do not use a damaged bedpan to avoid scratching the skin.

(5) Ensure adequate nutrition. The diet should contain enough protein, vitamins and calories. Choose foods that are easily digestible and eat an appropriate amount of fruits and vegetables every day. At the same time, pay more attention to physical exercise. If you are able to exercise, you can exercise moderately with the help of others. Get out of bed as soon as possible and don't sleep too much.

(6) Patients and their families need to be informed of relevant matters that need to be paid attention to in daily care, reduce the intake of high-cholesterol foods in the diet, and strengthen warming measures.

Conclusion

Pressure sores, also known as pressure injuries, are one of the common complications of many clinical diseases. They are mainly caused by the patient's body being still for a long time, which causes the local skin to be under pressure, which in turn has an adverse effect on the body's blood circulation, resulting in the skin and subcutaneous tissue not getting enough nutrition, and ulcers and necrosis of varying degrees. Therefore, at this time, we must prevent the formation of pressure sores, help patients maintain the correct position, and turn the patients over regularly to avoid prolonged pressure on the local part of the patient. During nursing, it is necessary to change the position every 0.5 to 2 hours, or use air mattresses, foam mattresses and other facilities to improve the patient's pressure sores. The above is some knowledge about pressure sores and how to prevent them. I hope that the above methods can help everyone and allow every patient to spend every day in good health!