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Age and Ageing Advance Access originally published online on March 11, 2005
Age and Ageing 2005 34(3):261-267; doi:10.1093/ageing/afi057
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Geriatrics Society. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org

Research Paper

Effectiveness of an alternating pressure air mattress for the prevention of pressure ulcers

Katrien Vanderwee, Maria H. F. Grypdonck and Tom Defloor

Nursing Science, Department of Public Health, Ghent University, UZ 2 Blok A, De Pintelaan 185, B 9000 Gent, Belgium

Address correspondence to: K. Vanderwee. Fax: (+32) 9 240 50 02. Email: katrien.vanderwee{at}ugent.be

Abstract

Background: studies of the effectiveness of alternating pressure air mattresses (APAMs) for the prevention of pressure ulcers are scarce and in conflict.

Objective: evaluating whether an APAM is more or equally effective as the standard prevention.

Design: randomised controlled trial.

Setting and subjects: patients admitted to 19 surgical, internal, or geriatric wards in seven Belgian hospitals were included if they were in need of prevention of pressure ulcers. To define this need, two methods were used randomly: the Braden Scale or the presence of non-blanchable erythema (NBE).

Methods: 447 patients were randomised into either an experimental or a control group. In the experimental group, 222 patients were lying on an APAM (Alpha-X-Cell®, Huntleigh Healthcare, UK). In the control group, 225 patients were lying on a visco-elastic foam mattress (Tempur®, Tempur-World Inc., USA) in combination with turning every 4 hours. Both groups had identical sitting protocols.

Results: there was no significant difference in incidence of pressure ulcers (grade 2–4) between the experimental (15.6%) and control group (15.3%) (P = 1). There were significantly more heel pressure ulcers in the control group (P = 0.006). There was an interaction effect between the risk assessment method and preventive measures for the development of all pressure ulcers and sacral pressure ulcers.

Conclusion: fewer patients developed heel pressure ulcers on an APAM. Patients identified as being in need of prevention based on the presence of NBE had a tendency to develop fewer pressure ulcers on an APAM. Patients identified as being in need of prevention, based on the Braden Scale, appeared to develop more sacral pressure ulcers on an APAM.

Keywords: decubitus ulcer, prevention and control, randomised controlled trial, beds, elderly

Received August 18, 2004; Revision received December 30, 2004. accepted in revised form December 30, 2004.


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[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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