[Prevention of bed sores; results of a program in intensive pediatrics treatment]

The difficulty to keep our patients' skin intact combined with few articles on this topic in pediatrics led the authors to carry out a study in their Pediatrics Intensive Care Unit "UCIP" at the Central University Hospital of Asturias, HUCA. The objective of this study consisted in determining if a decrease in the appearance of bed sores in children checked into their unit after a program whose purpose was to prevent bed sores had been applied occurred. This retrospective/prospective, comparative, observational study dealt with patients checked in their UCIP from September 2004 to September 2007; patients were broken into two groups, before and after applying a protocol and comparing the following variables: the number of patients checked in during each of the periods of this study; patients who had bed sores; average time kept in this ward for each group; pathologies patients who suffered from bed sores had when checked into this ward; the site and degree of these bed sores. Although there was an increase in the number of patients checked into this unit, the number of bed sores among children in this unit decreased 24.6% during the second period after the application of the protocol. Among the study observations noted there was a reduction in the severity of lesions patients manifested, as well as important differences as to where their lesions were located. Based on the results of the authors' study, one may conclude that the measures included in the bed sore prevention protocol, as well as the use of Mepentol hyperoxygenated fatty acids, have proven effective in their UCIP leading to a decrease in the number of patients which evidenced bed sores and the severity of these lesions was much less.