Risk Factors Associated With Pressure Injuries in Surgical Patients: A Retrospective Case-Control Study

This study aimed to identify predictive risk factors for pressure injury (PI) occurring during surgery.

Retrospective case-control study.

Data on records of 6070 patients hospitalized for surgery at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital located in Seoul Korea. Data were collected between May 2013 and December 2014.

Anonymized data from patients were accessed via electronic health records, nursing records, direct patient assessment, surgical, clinical laboratory, and anesthesia records, preanesthesia status evaluations, and PI incident reports, and transfusion and extracorporeal circulation reports. Descriptive and logistic regression analyses were conducted.

Three hundred eighty-one of the 6070 patients (6.3%) developed within 24 hours a PI that was associated with surgery. The most common locations for the PIs were the coccyx (15.1%; n = 75) and trunk (chest or abdomen; 15.1%; n = 75). All PIs were classified as stage 1 (66.6%; n = 331) or 2 (33.4%; n = 166). Based on logistic regression results, we found that the risk factors that were independently predictive of surgery-related PIs were patient position during surgery, admission to an intensive care unit after surgery, required blood transfusion during surgery, and duration of surgery.

This retrospective study identified several risk factors associated with a higher incidence of perioperative PIs in surgical patients. A PI prevention program accounting for these factors could potentially help prevent PIs and their costly complications.