Pressure ulcers are often found in the elderly or bedridden patients.

When it comes to pressure ulcers, they are often more common in older or elderly patients with mobility problems or bed-mounted patients. Little self-help or self-mobility. When sensitive skin is constantly depressed for a long time, blood cannot flow to feed the skin conveniently, resulting in redness and high humidity.

Areas with a chance of pressure ulcers

Pressure ulcers can form on bone buttons on the body, such as the coccyx, the hip side, the elbow and knee sides, the heel, the papilla to the ear or the back head, if not properly maintained from an early stage, adversely affecting the body and mind, including complications, infections and deaths.

Causes that cause pressure ulcers

The cause of pressure ulcers is due to older people getting older, the skin getting thinner, causing the subcutaneous layer to decrease in fat, decrease in elasticity, decrease in regression, along with slower movement as well. For some bedding patients who have less diet, incomplete nutrients form weak tissue, making the ulcer difficult to heal.

From time to time, swelling can occur caused by obstructing the conveying of food and oxygen to various tissues, resulting in pressure ulcers, a factor mainly attributed to the patient caused by the inside of the body, but external cases that promote it, caused by friction, slipping, or having direct pressure on the bone button area, are also the cause of pressure ulcers.

Pressure Ulcer Prevention and Care Techniques

Sleeping posture for the patient

When the patient is unable to move the body and lies in bed for several hours, the caregiver should reposition the patient at least once every 2 hours so that part of the patient does not suffer pressure for too long, or alternately position the patient to lie on his back and on his left-right side. The sleep position should be up to 30 degrees (after 30-1 hours of feeding, the level should be reduced to 30 degrees to reduce the shear to the skin itself).

If a patient who cannot move but can sit on a wheelchair should change his / her position every 1 hour.

* * A caregiver may use a soft bolster to insert between the bone buttons, elbow, knee, papilla, hip, or coccyx (these are easy points of pressure).

Use of Pressure Reduction Device

Caregivers can find devices that can help reduce supplemental pressure, such as soft pillows (depending on patient size), air beds, gel cushions applied to the head and ankles.

Skin care to patients

For patients with dry skin, the use of warm water should be avoided, as it will make dry skin break more easily. After cleaning the body, the lotion should be applied 2-3 times a day to prevent dry broken skin.

Cleanliness Care

In cases where excretion is uncontrollable, excretion should be cleaned whenever excretion is performed and dried. May apply Vaseline or skin preservation drugs to the skin area around the anus, both buttocks cheeks, to prevent damp skin and prevent sewage irritation of the skin. Avoid using heat or cold to compress the skin area with little sensation as it will easily cause injury to the skin, including lying on the seams and tie knots to reduce pressure on the skin area.

Move the patient carefully.

If the elderly have bedding and have a lot of body weight or a barrier to moving, they should find a buoy. It may be a lifting cloth or a moving device. Change the posture on the bed. Emphasize that the force should be used to lift should not be used to drag, should not move alone. If the force is exceeded, it may injure the caregiver himself, including the elderly.

Nutrition is paramount.

If patients with low diet or need to eat through a hose, including patients with various congenital diseases, calculating the amount of nutrient intake, whether protein, carbohydrate, saturated fat, or trans, fruits and vegetables with high fiber residue, giving them a reasonable proportion of vitamin supplements, it is important for caregivers to study and control them in the right amount if good nutritional conditions make them less likely to develop ulcers and recover quickly.

Hopefully, you can all guide your primary care and ensure the good health care of your beloved older adults, including consulting a doctor for advice on how to properly care for patients to prevent more ulcers from spreading.

# Pressure wound # Prevent pressure ulcers # Aging health# Care for patients# Close story # Good health starts with us# Take care of the people you love