Understanding Pressure Sores / Bed Sores
Pressure sores, or some called it as bed sores, that may be common to elderly as their skin are getting thin and fragile by age. According to Minister of Health Malaysia, pressure sores are areas of injured skin. It is commonly caused by sitting or lying in one position for too long. If it is not being taken care well, Pressure Sores may become larger in size and it would smell bad due to tissue degradation.
Cause of Pressure Sores
Fun facts: Pressure sores are signs of neglect. A case study scenario: An elderly is being left on the bed lying on one position for too long. The prolonged immobility and pressure can reduce the blood supply to the skin and tissue resulting in damage and sore.
Pressure sores are preventable if the elderly constantly receives relieving measures such as frequent turning. This is to avoid prolonged pressure on any one ( vulnerable ) part of the body.
Common Pressure Sores Area
According to our nursing home experience, we do receive incoming patients with pressure sores. Most of them admitted with sores at the sacrum & heels. This is because the patients are bedridden and experienced less supervision from their previous locations.
Lecadia Primacare Center Experience
According to our team, this is one of the worse pressure sores for elderly. It is labelled as “Unstageable Pressure Injury”. It is described as Pressure sore with an undetermined level of tissue injury because the entire base of the wound is covered by slough tissue. If this condition occurs onto your elderly, it is advisable to send them to the hospital first to allow doctors to clean and remove all bad tissues away.
The top layer is dried off and unable to see any redness, which can be deceiving that it is recovered. Truth to be told, the tissue degradation is still ongoing and would produce a pungent smell. The only way to overcome it is to remove the think dark layer and remove all the degrated tissue away to allow growth of new tissues and promotes recovery. After few months of proper wound care, the would is now smaller and the tissue seems healthier in colour.
I need a Nursing Home with Wound care service.
Our nurses are well trained to handle pressure sores. Our goal is to prioritize improvements and recovery of our residents. Our nurses would proceed assessments & provide the best solution onto their conditions. Click the button below now to get in touch with us.
