Clinical Utility of a Special Mattress in the Prevention of Pressure Ulcers

ABSTRACT

We studied a group of spinal cord injured patients, using two different mattresses, to analyze statistically the pressure measured over sacral area and skin changes developed on the dorsal skin surface of patients for pat ients for specific duration of time. Local pressure measured sacral area and skin change score were lower on a Bazooka system than common hospital mattress. And the weight. BMI(Body Mass Index) and % IBW(Ideal Body Weight) of patients significantly correlated with the skin changes developed on the dorsal skin surface after lying on common hospital mattress for 2 hours. But skin changes developed after lying on a Bazooka system for 8 hours didn't correlated with these variables. Therefore a Bazooka system may be effective in the prevention of pressure ulcers for spinal cord injured patients.