[The organization of a working group for the prevention of decubitus lesions]

The authors report the results of a two years monitoring program focused on patients at risk of and with bedsores in the general hospital of Castelfranco Veneto. The purpose of the multidisciplinary exercise (which saw the participation of nurses, pharmacists, doctors) was the activation and the evaluation of treatment protocols. The overall recruited sample included 679 patients, with a prevalence of 61% of lesions at the occasion of the first observation, and of 57% in the last one. The hardly quantitatively different prevalence is better understood from a qualitative point of view: the number of lesions per patients drops slightly from 1.9 to 1.7; one out of four of the "at risk" patients became "at no risk"; a 30% improvement is observed with respect to treatment efficacy. It is suggested that a positive effect may be obtained through a sustained attention to the problem and the careful definition of the interventions to be planned.