Nutrition and Pressure Ulcers: An Opportunity to Accelerate the Healing Process

Abstract

Pressure ulcers are often caused by a local breakdown of soft tissue as a result of compression between a bony prominence and external surface causing localized tissue damage [3]. An ordinally, older patients, malnourished patients, patients with low mobility and patients with poor sensory perception are at greater risk of pressure ulcers [3,5]. 70-73% of those who develop pressure ulcers are over 6S years old and 25.16% in Hong Kong nursing homes [3]. Typically, pressure ulcers do not heal well, and inadequate healing increases a patient’s susceptibility to life threatening infections, including sepsis and cellulitis [4-6]. Additionally, poor ulcer healing negatively affects the clinical prognosis of comorbid conditions. Mortality rates in patients with pressure ulcers admitted to nursing homes can be as high as 50% after 1 year compared with 27% in patients without pressure ulcers [1]. Therefore, the cost of treating pressure ulcers is high, ranging from £958-£11,606 per patient in the United Kingdom, depending on ulcer severity [7]. Approximately 90% of this cost is a result of increased nursing care, which includes patient monitoring and wound dressing, but antibiotic Costs for treating infections also contribute [7].