Use of Hydrocolloid Dressings in Preventing Pressure Ulcers in High-risk Patients: a Retrospective Cohort.

OBJECTIVES: This work sought to evaluate the association between using preventive hydrocolloid dressings and the onset of pressure ulcers in hospitalized patients.

METHODS: Retrospective cohort study that included adult patients with high risk of pressure ulcers (PU) evaluated according to the Braden scale and who had been admitted with preventive purposes to a skin care program. The preventive care prescribed by the nursing staff included using hydrocolloid dressing plus conventional care (HD+CC) or only conventional care (CC), in a tier IV hospital in Bogotá, Colombia. Information was obtained from the clinical records of the demographic variables, health, and complications during hospitalization.

RESULTS: One-hundred seventy subjects were included in the study (23 in HD+CC and 147 in CC). In all, 30.4% of the patients in the HD+CC group and 17% in the CC group had PU during follow up (p=0.15). The ratio between the type of preventive treatment received and the development of PU obtained a raw Hazzard ratio (HR) of 1.35 (CI95%: 0.58-3.14; p=0.48) and HR adjusted for confounding variables of 1.06 (CI95%: 0.29-3.84 p=0.92).

CONCLUSIONS: Our results showed no superiority of HD+CC against CC in preventing PU in adult patients with high risk according to the Braden scale. The cohort study did not reveal significant differences between both interventions. It is necessary to promote and develop clinical trials to evaluate the effectiveness of using dressings and other conventional care in high-risk patients for this type of event.