Dynamic Cushion Method of Reducing Pressure Ulcers

Dynamic Cushion Method of Reducing Pressure Ulcers

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Dynamic Cushion Method of Reducing Pressure Ulcers

Introduction

Pressure ulcers are injuries incurred when pressure is applied to a part of the body persistently. These ulcers are formed especially on bony areas of the body that sustain a lot of pressure. The hip bone area is the most according to recent studies. These ulcers may seem like a minor issue but believe you me; it is a very troubling issue. In the world today, a significant number of people are faced with a risk of developing pressure ulcers. These are mostly those people that are subjected to minimum mobility in their daily life. Good examples are those people using wheelchairs, people working seated in an office, hospitalized individuals who are bedridden for a long time, and even those people that are just introverts. They will just sit in the house the whole day doing nothing better than watching a movie.

Though underappreciated, this issue affects up to an alarming 2.5 million people in the world annually. These statistics are very startling. 60,000 out of those patients die each year. This is as much as the number of deaths caused by influenza and gun shots in America. The cost of treatment of this effect is astonishingly high. Reports have it that pressure ulcer patients in the United States spend an average amount of $11.6 billion per year on treatment.

Recently, several technologies have been developed to minimize pressure ulcers. Some of these are air cushions, fluid cushion, a combination of fluid cushions and many others. These methods work by distributing the pressure to a large area hence reducing the vulnerability. These methods though are not that useful. A more sophisticated method was developed; the dynamic cushion method. This is an air cushion that is inflated and deflated at different intervals at different partitioned parts. In this report, I have summarized the technology and the operation of this method and listed ways which this study will be of help to solve the current problem. This study is bound to answer the following questions:

1. The method development and testing.

1. How was the method developed?
2. How was the method tested?

1. The effectiveness of the method.

1. What were the results of the method?
2. What are the merits of the research?
3. What were the limitations of the study?
4. What were the effects of the study on nursing practices?

1. Approval of the method.

1. Was the study approved?
2. What are the recommendations?

Methodology.

This dynamic cushion was made in the common knowledge of the air cushions. In this case, the cushion was partitioned into four part; two to support the buttocks and the other two to support the thighs. These partitions are inflated by an inflating electro-valve and deflated by a deflating electro-valve which are controlled by a program that was developed by LabVIEW®. This cushion is made with dimensions corresponding to that of an adult size cushion. It is machined to relieve pressure on the sitting area without having to move. It is automatically done by changing the pressure values at an alternating sequence that gets its data from pressure sensors that are placed in the air cells. This method is more efficient in a case where patient repositioning is not done frequently.

To appraise the result of the dynamic cushion, eight volunteers; five females and three males, in good physical shape, were requested to sit on the dynamic cushion for twelve minutes each, two minutes on static mode(control) and ten minutes on alternating pressure mode. A constraint for quantitative evaluation of alternating sequences was proposed in this study by determining the coefficient of variation of interface pressure. Additionally, the proportion of relative change of coefficient of variation was calculated for evaluating the performance of the alternating pressure sequences comparing to the static mode.

Results.

It was witnessed that during the first method (static method), the patients did not experience that much pressure for averagely the first minute but during the second minute, discomfort was witnessed, and most of them had an intention to change their sitting position.

In the second part of the twelve minutes, though, the patients depicted comfort. It was evident that the patients were enjoying their experience sitting on the cushion. This cushion changed the amount of pressure applied to different parts of the buttocks and the thighs hence relieving the overall pressure. This reduced the urge to change the sitting position compared to what was witnessed in their first two minutes.

Evidently, from the report, the dynamic cushion has significant advantages over other methods of stress relieving. The greatest merit is the reduced urge of moving. This cushion will change the pressure amounts without the patient even noticing. This will help lessen the number of pressure ulcer cases that are documented annually for those hospitalized patients, particularly ICU patients that are immobile hence will neither notice the pain or will notice but will not be able to do anything about it. This dynamic cushion also has pressure sensors. This will help it regulate the amount of pressure it applies with respect to the patient using it. This is specifically to reduce the probability of a nominal fluid or air cushion because the patient may be heavier or lighter that the optimum weight set by the manufacturers. In a case there the patient is heavier, the fluid cushions that have been in use previously will not be effective because the patient will exceed the pressure values and reach the hard base supporting the cushion. This will lead to the development of pressure ulcers. In a case there the patient is lighter, the cushion will act as a hard surface. It will create a hard surface that when the body weight applies pressure will create a pressure sore.