Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Oct;12(5):572-6.
doi: 10.1111/iwj.12166. Epub 2013 Oct 17.

Local flap therapy for the treatment of pressure sore wounds

Reto Wettstein  1   2 , Mathias Tremp  1   2 , Michael Baumberger  2 , Dirk J Schaefer  1   2 , Daniel F Kalbermatten  1   2
Affiliations

Local flap therapy for the treatment of pressure sore wounds

Reto Wettstein et al. Int Wound J. 2015 Oct.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyse the effectiveness of an interdisciplinary cooperation between conservative and surgical disciplines for the treatment of pressure sores (PS). From January 2004 to December 2005, a single-centre study was performed with paraplegic and tetraplegic patients presenting with PS grades III-V. Outcome measures were defect size, grade, method of reconstruction, complication and recurrence rate as well as average length of hospitalisation. A total of 119 patients aged 22-84 years with totally 170 PS were included. The most common PS were located in the ischial region (47%), followed by the sacral (18%), trochanteric (11%), foot (9%) and the malleolar (8%) regions. Defect sizes ranged between 4 and 255 cm(2) . Grade IV was the most common PS (68%), followed by grade III (30%) and grade V (2%) PS. For wound closure, fasciocutaneous flaps were used most frequently (71%), followed by skin grafts (10%) and myocutaneous flaps (7%). Postoperative follow-up ranged between 6 and 38 months. The overall complication and recurrence rate was 26% and 11%, respectively. If no complication occurred, the average duration of hospitalisation stay after the first debridement was 98 ± 62 days. In conclusion, our treatment concept is reliable, effective and results in a low recurrence rate. The complication rate, even though favourable when compared with the literature, still needs to be improved.

Keywords: Interdisciplinary communication; Pressure sore; Recurrence.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(A) Representative image of a 75‐year‐old female patient after debridement of a sacral pressure sore grade V with osteomyelitis. (B) Image showing the postoperative situs after defect closure with a fasciocutaneous gluteal rotation flap.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Overview of the anatomic pressure sores.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Overview of the most commonly used methods to cover defect size.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Sumiya T, Kawamura K, Tokuhiro A, Takechi H, Ogata H. A survey of wheelchair use by paraplegic individuals in Japan. Part 2: prevalence of pressure sores. Spinal Cord 1997;35:595–8. - PubMed
    1. Braden B, Bergstrom N. A conceptual schema for the study of the etiology of pressure sores. Rehabil Nurs 1987;12:8–12. - PubMed
    1. Allman RM, Goode PS, Burst N, Bartolucci AA, Thomas DR. Pressure ulcers, hospital complications, and disease severity: impact on hospital costs and length of stay. Adv Wound Care 1999;12:22–30. - PubMed
    1. Smith DM. Pressure ulcers in the nursing home. Ann Intern Med 1995;123:433–42. - PubMed
    1. Inouye SK, Studenski S, Tinetti ME, Kuchel GA. Geriatric syndromes: clinical, research, and policy implications of a core geriatric concept. J Am Geriatr Soc 2007;55:780–91. - PMC - PubMed