Effectiveness of combined shortwave ultraviolet and millimeter-wave irradiation in the treatment of pressure ulcers / 中华物理医学与康复杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the effect of short-wave ultraviolet combined with millimeter-wave irradiation on pressure ulcers.Methods Fifty-three patients with 87 pressure ulcer wounds were randomly divided into 3 groups.Group A consisted of 17 patients with 28 pressure ulcers,group B had 18 patients with 29 ulcers and group C had 18 patients with 29 pressure ulcers.All the patients in the 3 groups accepted routine care.Group B was treated with short-wave ultraviolet radiation in addition,and group C received millimeter-wave combined with short-wave ultraviolet radiation.Braden's scale was used to evaluate the integrity of the patients' skin before treatment,and the pressure sore status tool (PSST) was used to evaluate exudation and skin recovery before and after treatment.Results Before treatment the patients demographics and pressure sores of the three groups had no significant differences.In group A there was no significant difference in the average PSST-5 score between before and after treatment.Compared with the scores before therapy,the average scores of groups B and C decreased significantly.They were also significantly lower than in group A after treatment.The effect in group C was better than in group B.With regard to improvement rate,the improvement percentages of groups B and C were significantly higher than that of group A,while there was no statistically significant difference between groups B and C.The rate of excellent recovery of group C was better than that of group A or B,but there was no significant difference between groups A and B.Conclusions Combining short-wave ultraviolet irradiation with millimeter-wave irradiation has remarkable effects on exudation from and the recovery of pressure ulcers.