Pressure sores are not far away from the elderly in the community

This is the 2658th article of Da Yi Xiao Hu

Elderly people who stay in bed for a long time will develop pressure sores. So how long is "long-term"? One month? One week? One hour? Most people would believe that it takes at least ten days or half a month, right?

However, what I want to tell you today is that shopping in a supermarket can also cause the risk of pressure sores. Let’s take a look at how it happens.

On a sunny winter afternoon, an old lady pushed an old man with limited mobility to go shopping in a supermarket. They happened to encounter a product promotion and couldn't help but buy a lot of food and daily necessities. How to carry them back? The old man in the wheelchair came up with an idea: just pile the items on his thighs, since one side had been paralyzed and had no sensation for many years. The old lady did so, and the two chatted and laughed all the way back home without feeling any "discomfort". In the evening, when they were rubbing their bodies, they found that the pressured parts were a little swollen, but they didn't care because it was "not painful or itchy".

In the following days, blisters and scabs appeared on the pressure areas. The old lady also actively used disinfectant to disinfect them. However, the pressure areas became more red and swollen, and fluid flowed out. She went to the community hospital and was told that it was a "pressure sore" and "deep tissue injury - cannot be staged."

It is reported that the incidence of pressure sores among bedridden elderly people in the community is as high as over 20%. In my country, the number of clinical deaths due to pressure sores is nearly 60,000 each year! Therefore, it is urgent to prevent them before they happen! You must learn about pressure sores. The so-called pressure injury refers to the localized injury of the skin and subcutaneous tissue, which usually occurs at the bone protrusion and is generally caused by pressure or pressure combined with shear force. The focus of care is prevention!

Which parts are prone to disease?

How to prevent it?

People who are bedridden for a long time should change their body position at least once every two hours to avoid lying directly on bony protrusions. They can use auxiliary devices such as pressure relief pads. When sitting or lying on the side, the angle between the body and the bed should be as small as possible to reduce shear force. Those in wheelchairs should change their body position every hour. Of course, nutrition and skin cleanliness are factors that cannot be ignored.

Many people wonder, healthy people often sleep more than 8 hours a day, and computer users sit for several hours, so why don't they get pressure sores? In fact, whether you are sleeping or sitting on a stool, it is impossible for you to stay still. You will turn over in your sleep and move your buttocks when you sit, but patients with dull sensation or immobility will not move their bodies automatically, which is why the elderly with sensory or cognitive impairments are the group with a high incidence of pressure sores.

Author: Wound Care Team of Jinyang Community Health Service Center