Does Incremental Positioning (Weight Shifts) Reduce Pressure Injuries in Critical Care Patients?

Incremental positioning or weight shifts are often suggested as an alternative to standard repositioning/turning in critical care patients deemed clinically unstable.

This evidence-based report card reviews whether incremental positioning and/or weight shifts reduce hospital-acquired sacral/buttocks pressure injuries in critical care patients deemed too unstable to turn.

A scoping review of the literature was conducted for studies related to repositioning and hospital-acquired pressure injuries in high-risk, critical care patients. The databases searched were CINAHL, EMBASE, and PubMed. Key words used in the search were "intensive care," "critical care," "pressure ulcer(s)," "pressure injury(ies)," "pressure sore(s)," "turn(s)," "turning," "shift(s)," "shifting," "position(s)," OR "positioning, cardiopulmonary support." The search yielded 183 articles. The search was then narrowed to those published within the past 10 years, yielding 35 citations. Following title and abstract review, 5 studies were identified that met inclusion criteria; an additional 13 articles were found by ancestry and hand-searching.

No evidence was identified that incremental positioning and/or weight shifts reduce hospital-acquired sacral/buttocks pressure injuries in critical care patients deemed too unstable to turn. In addition, no evidence was found that incremental positioning and/or weight shifts affect interface pressure on the sacrum/buttocks. However, there was evidence that incremental positioning and/or weight shifts do impact gravitational equilibrium.

Despite the paucity of evidence, incremental positioning and/or weight shifts are recommended as an intervention in critical care patients deemed too unstable to turn. Further research is needed to examine whether incremental positioning and/or weight shifts are effective in reducing pressure injuries in critical care patients.