The incidence of pressure ulcers in surgical patients of the last 5 years: a systematic review

Abstract

This systematic review looks at the incidence of pressure ulcers in surgical patients of the last 5 years.

Methods: The authors searched Pubmed and Web of Science for studies published after 2005. Screen- ing and data abstraction were performed independently by 2 reviewers.

Results: Seventeen studies (5,451 patients) met the inclusion criteria. The incidence of surgery-related pressure ulcers ranged from 0.003 to 0.574. The pooled incidence was 0.15 (95% CI 0.14-0.16, I2 = 98.2%). For cardiac surgery, hip fracture surgery, and patients on the surgical intensive care unit, the pooled incidence was 0.18 (95% CI 0.14-0.22, I2 = 62.8%), 0.22 (95% CI 0.20-0.24, I2= 98.4%), and 0.11 (95% CI 0.09-0.13, I2 = 98.5%), respectively.

Conclusion: The data on the incidence of surgery-related pressure ulcers indicates that appropriate monitoring and treatment need to be performed.