The frequency of pressure ulcer and its risk factors in the ICU of Khatam-al-Anbia Hospital of Zahedan in 2018

Introduction: Pressure ulcer is the most significant complication of frequent hospitalization that results in increased duration of hospitalization, high medical costs and serious complications for the patient’s health. Thus, the present study was conducted to determine the frequency of pressure ulcer and its main risk factors in the ICU of Khatam-al-Anbia Hospital of Zahedan in 2018.Method: This cross-sectional study was conducted on all patients hospitalized in the ICU of Khatam-al-Anbia Hospital of Zahedan from 2017 to 2018. By adopting a census method, as many as 781 qualified patients (older than 18 years with a hospital duration of more than 24 hours) were investigated. The information recorded on the patients’ information forms include their gender, age, place of ulcer, number of ulcer in each organ, duration of hospitalization and the presence of underlying diseases. After investigating the general frequency of pressure ulcer, the patients’ data were analyzed in SPSS-25. Moreover, the data were analyzed in terms of percentage, mean and standard deviation by using Chi-squared test and T-test. The significance level was determined to be less than 0.05.Results: From among 71 patients (9.1%) suffering from pressure ulcer, 34 patients (7.1%) were males and 37 patients (12.3%) were females (P=0.013). The mean age of the pressure ulcer patients was 62.94 ± 20.57 years (P=0.022). In these patients, the ulcer was in the buttock area in 34 cases (47.9%). Moreover, the ulcer was in the sacral area in 21 cases (29.6%). Both buttock and sacral areas were involved in 6 cases (8.5%). Both buttock and shoulder were involved in 3 cases (4.2%). The iliac area was involved in 2 cases (2.8%). The occiput was involved in two cases (2.8%). Both buttock and spinal cord were in 1 case (1.4%). In one case (1.4%), the ulcer was seen in the foot heel. In addition, both sacral area and occiput were involved in one case (1.4%). As many as 48 patients (67.60%) had one ulcer, 13 patients (18.31%) had two ulcers, 7 patients (9.86%) had three ulcers and 3 patients (4.23%) had more than 4 ulcers. The pressure ulcer patients’ mean duration of hospitalization was 23.49 ± 18.23 days (P<0.001). The most frequent underlying diseases were diabetes (in 31 cases, 43.7%) and hypertension (in 23 cases, 32.4%) (P> 0.05).Conclusion: Being a female, old age, the cause of hospitalization and the duration of hospitalization increase the risk of pressure ulcer. Thus, it is recommended to consider these four factors in evaluating the risk factors of pressure ulcer in ICU patients.

Keywords:

Bed sore , Risk factors , ICU , Zahedan