Issues and dilemmas in the prevention and treatment of pressure ulcers: A review

Considerable dogma and rhetoric, rather than evidence-based results, have a ccompanied recommendations for the prevention and treatment of pressure ulc ers. Therapy for pressure ulcers is generally empiric, based on anecdotal e xperience, or burrowed from the treatment of patients with acute wounds, Th e treatment of pressure ulcers is problematic because of multiple comorbidi ties of patients, the chronic duration of pressure ulcers, and often by the physician's relative unfamiliarity with treatment options. Issues and dile mmas ill the prevention of pressure ulcers center around risk assessment, m eans of pressure relief and nutritional support. Similar issues in the trea tment of pressure ulcers include implementing pressure relief, nutritional support, local wound care, the best method of debridement, diagnosing infec tion, the use of topical growth factors, and surgical treatment. The accumu lating data for the prevention and management of pressure ulcers permits an outline of clinical strategies.