Pressure sores in children - the acute hospital perspective

Abstract

There is very little published literature on pressure sores in children and most of the existing literature is qualitative. Using literature from paediatric and adult studies, a schedule was designed to collect quantitative data on aspects that may predispose children to pressure injury. The schedule was piloted in an incidence and a prevalence study at the Royal Liverpool Children's NHS Trust. The sample size was 82 children for the incidence study and 183 children for the prevalence study. Six children in the incidence study and 12 children in the prevalence study sustained pressure injury. Data indicated that factors most strongly associated with pressure injury were nutritional status, mobility and consciousness level. Other factors that were implicated in increasing susceptibility to pressure injury were skin condition, body weight, haemodynamic status and hydration. Infants and young children most frequently sustained pressure injury on the occipital scalp area and heels. Although this was a small study, it produced some useful preliminary data, and was a valuable exercise to develop a tool for data collection on a larger scale.