Pressure ulcers in neonates and children: epidemiological and clinical profile

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the pressure ulcer incidence in neonates and children at the Hospital das Clinicas at Federal University of Parana (HC/UFPR), to characterize the sociodemographic profile of patients with pressure ulcers in an established period of time, and perform a clinical evaluation of pressure ulcers and identify its degree of seriousness. This was a transversal study developed from April to May of 2009 in the HC/UFPR pediatric units. Each neonate and child was chosen by the responsible registered nurse of each pediatric unit. A specific instrument was utilized under sociodemographic characteristics, anatomical location and clinical evaluation of pressure ulcers. It was utilized the SPSS Statistics program, 17.0 version for statistical analysis. Five neonates/children were identified with pressure ulcers, with an 8, 06% prevalence rate. The average age was 2, 25 years (SD=3, 02), the average time in hospital was 21, 4 days (SD=19, 08), varying from 5 to 50 days. The hospitalization causes were acute respiratory insufficiency associated with cardiopathy (1), bronchopneumonia (1), late postoperative with central venous catheterrelated infection (1) and myelomeningoceles (2). Regarding the severity of the pressure ulcers, two were First-Degree, one Second-Degree, one Third-Degree and one unidentified Degree, located at occipital region (20%), temporal (20%), nasal (20%), dorsal (20%) and thumb (20%). It has been observed that a significant prevalence of pressure ulcers exists in pediatric patients. Prevention strategies and further new incidence and prevalence studies in this age group might decrease these numbers