Review of pressure ulcers management in pediatrics: assessment, prevention, and intervention

Abstract

A Pressure Ulcer (PU) is defined by the National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel (NPUAP) as a ‘‘localized injury to the skin and/ or underlying tissue usually over a bony prominence, as a result of pressure, or pressure in combination with shear and/or friction.1 Pus represent a significant healthcare problem and play a critical role in the patients’ quality of life and their treatments affect the patients’ lives emotionally, mentally, physically and socially.2 The staging system of PU was defined by Shea in 1975 and provides a name to the amount of anatomical tissue loss. The original definitions were confusing to many clinicians and lead to inaccurate staging of ulcers associated or due to perineal dermatitis and those due to deep tissue injury. In 2007, the proposed definitions were refined by the NPUAP and described in details with input from an on-line evaluation of their face validity, accuracy clarity, succinctness, utility, and discrimination.1,3