Predictive Value of Braden Risk Factors in Pressure Ulcers of Outpatients With Spinal Cord Injury

Pressure Ulcers (PUs) remain among the most common complications after traumatic spinal cord Injuries (SCIs). The main goal of risk factor assessment with different tools has been to provisionally estimate the chance of developing pressure ulcers in patients with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI). Braden tool has been of good predictive value and most commonly employed in hospital communities for risk assessment of pressure sore development. The objective of this study was to determine the Braden risk factors as well as the prevalence of pressure injuries in SCI patients. This cross-sectional study was performed from June 2013 to December 2015 on 163 consecutive referred outpatients with chronic traumatic SCI in our tertiary SCI rehabilitation clinic. We assessed pressure induced skin injuries as well as their Braden risk factors and analyzed their association with stage and location of Pressure Ulcer (PU) and calculated prevalence of PU. One hundred and sixty-three patients out of 580 were found to have active pressure sores, with a prevalence of 28.1%. In the multiple models, only the Braden scale had significant association with the presence of active pressure sore. Patients with severe and moderate Braden scores were 2.36 and 1.82 times, more at risk of pressure sore development, as compared with those having mild scores (P≤0.01). It may be deduced that in various stages of SCI rehabilitation, the Braden scale may be calculated, and patients with moderate and severe risks (according to Braden sale) may need more attention and/or inpatient care for PU prevention.