Bed sores, or pressure ulcers, are lesions caused by prolonged pressure to a part or side of the body. Learn about bed sores, including treatments and symptoms, in this video.
DR. CATHERINE STALLWORTH: Hi, I am Dr. Cathy Stallworth. Now, I would like to talk to you about bed sores. Bed sores are also commonly referred to as decubitus ulcers. What happens with a bed sore is you have prolonged pressure between a bone and the surface of the skin. When this occurs, you don't get enough blood flow to the skin; and as a result of this, the skin becomes damaged. Other risk factors for bed sores include things like malnutrition, prolonged bed mobility and general debility. Obviously, it's very common to see bed sores in people as they age. Again, your skin becomes more frail. It's much more easy to become malnourished as you become older. A stage 1 ulcer is basically just a very superficial surface of the skin. When I look at a patient and I see this, they will have a little redness. Someone with darker skin, of African-American or Hispanic descent, the skin may not be red but just a little darker. And in order to be stage 1, when I press on the skin there is no blanching or turning white. In stage 2, the wound is a little bit deeper. It is going into the dermis. And in stage 3, the wound is even deeper moving into soft tissues. And a stage 4 ulcer gets into the bone. This is concerning because if an ulcer gets to the point that it's stage 4, it can actually cause significant infection in the bone and in the deep tissues of the body. So we take decubitus ulcers very seriously. And here I've got a specialized cushion that actually redistributes the pressure of the bones of the buttocks for people who are having problems with potential skin breakdown in the buttocks. This particular cushion is called a Roho cushion and it's got these different air cells. And we can inflate or deflate the air cells in certain places to redistribute the pressure. This particular support is called a heel lift, and what it does is it is keeping my heel completely off of the bed, completely alleviating all pressure. So this is something that I like to use for people who are having problems with the heels or the ankles. Another thing that we do is have patients turn more often. Certainly here on my rehab unit, if someone is having problems with pressure areas that are occurring in the bed, one of the first things we will do is turn them every two hours. It's definitely something that I recommend. What do we do if you have developed a decubitus ulcer and how do we take care of it? Certainly, we want to keep it clean. We want to keep it covered. If an eschar develops, one of the things we do is we want to get that off. We'll do debridement. Sometimes, it is surgical debridement. There are also different creams that we can apply that will help to soften the scar and allow us to remove the scar. And again, it's also important if you've got one of these deeper infections, make sure you get checked for an infection.
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