[A comparison of the efficacy of different wound dressing management techniques in preventing pressure ulcers]

Although high-technology wound dressings are widely used in clinical care worldwide, no evidence or discussions have been published regarding the efficacy of these dressings in preventing pressure ulcers.

This study presents a repositioning of routine management combined with hydrocolloid dressing or foam dressing for pressure ulcer prevention.

We used a quasi-experimental design and recruited a convenience sample of 90 from a surgical intensive care unit (SICU) at a medical center in Hualien County, Taiwan. Participants were allocated randomly to one of three groups: repositioning of routine management, hydrocolloid dressing, and foam dressing. Study instruments included a pressure ulcer risk table (Braden scale) and the pressure ulcer classification system of the European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel. An independent sample t-test, ANOVA, and Mann-Whitney U test were used to verify research hypotheses.

The repositioning of routine management group had the highest pressure ulcer incidence rate, followed by the hydrocolloid-dressing group. The foam-dressing group recorded no pressure ulcers. Pressure ulcer occurrence grades were primarily level 1 and 2. There was no significance difference in pressure ulcer occurrence time between the repositioning of routine-management group and the hydrocolloid-dressing group. Finally, there were significant differences (p < .05) among gender, hypertension history, and BMI regardless of pressure ulcer incidences.

It is recommended that patients in high-risk groups in clinical settings adopt strategies including repositioning and regular visual skin examinations. Also, hydrocolloid or foam dressings may be used as appropriate to prevent sacral pressure ulcers.