The treatment of pressure sores in paraplegic patients

Abstract

Summary There would be few, if any, pressure sores if patients could be admitted to spinal injury units directly after the accident. All ulcers can be closed with the possible exception of the trochanteric leading into an infected hip joint. Having been closed, given an intelligent, co-operative patient made sore-conscious, there should not be any recurrence. The great bugbear of surgery for pressure sores is the uncertainty as to whether all the vessels have been tied. The surgeon and his team must ever be on the alert for h˦matoma formation and deal with it at once, otherwise disappointment will be the outcome not only for the surgeon but also for the patient.