Incidence of Pressure Ulcers due to Tube Fixation in Mechanically Ventilated Patients in Intensive Care Unit

Background: most of the patients in ICU requires mechanically ventilation by tube. One of the complications of the tube is pressure ulcers that developed as a result of the tube fixation. Those ulcers may cause long term complications, increase patient suffering and decrease the quality of life. Current study comes to reveal risk factors for such pressure ulcers development and to increase the scant knowledge regarding the issue.

Methods: after IRB approval daily check of the endangered areas was performed in order to reveal pressure ulcers development in 78 patients (45 men, convenience sample). All patients were intubated in ICU or were transferred to ICU less than two hours after initial intubation. Demographic measures were collected (e.g: age, gender, chronic and acute disease, albumin level on admission, ventilation days). Descriptive statistics was used to draw results.

Results: ulcers were developed on average after 5 days of ventilation (SD±2.95) in 57% of patients. 69.7% of men and 42.8% of woman patients developed PU. 44% of PU were stage 1, 51% were stage 2, 5% were stage 3. Pearson analysis show albumin level on admission, age and diabetes are not related to PU development. Conclusions: male gender is risk factor for PU development in ventilated patients in ICU. Age, albumin and diabetes are not related to PU development. The pressures are developing rapidly stressing the need for meticulous assessment of the endangered areas of the ears and mouth. Pressure relieve devices and fixation devices may be helpful to prevent PU development but further research is needed to make evidence based decisions on this matter