Factors affecting the incidence and prevalence of pressure ulcers in COVID-19 patients

admitted with a Braden scale below 14 in the intensive care unit: Retrospective cohort study

 

Mahin Amini, Feizollah Mansouri, Kamran Vafaee, Alireza Janbakhsh, Somayeh Mahdavikian

 

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has caused hospitalisation of patients worldwide with a wide range of clinical complications for a variety of reasons. The most important complication of COVID-19 in hospitalised patients is acute respiratory distress syndrome, which requires patients to use oxygen supply equipment such as a ventilator and a non-invasive ventilation (NIV) mask. COVID-19 patients admitted to the hospitals, especially the intensive care units (ICUs), are prone to pressure ulcers (PUs) as an important and double complication due to multiple complications of the disease such as inactivity, and some degree of immobility and the use of artificial airways. On average, during the corona pandemic in different countries of the world, COVID-19 patients occupy 21% of the ICU admission capacity with an average [95% CI = 6.99-8.63] 7.78 days per patient.3 Increasing the length of hospital stay causes PU and PU, in turn, increases LOS. PU, also called pressure sores or bedsores, causes injuries to the skin and underlying tissue that appear primarily due to prolonged pressure on the skin due to inactivity and factors such as age over 65.5 In particular, second- and higher-grade ulcers increase the length of hospital stay, increase mortality, and shorten patients’ lives and are recognised as an important challenge in the health system. PU causes more than 60 000 deaths annually in the United States.10 Data from a wide study showed that COVID-19 patients need more than three times as much care and attention to the occurrence of PU compared to other hospitalised patients … read more


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