Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Bedsores can be Responsible for Considerable Morbidity and Mortality

Bedsores can kill almost as many as the hospital superbug MRSA (Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus) and cost a lot to the exchequer anywhere in the world.
Even when they don’t kill, they inflict terrible pain, discomfort; and rob the sufferer of their time and money.
Bedsores are pressure sores those develop at the pressure points of body of a bed ridden patient or when a patient cannot turn in the bed for a considerable period of time.
Circulation is impaired or stopped at the point of pressure, predisposing the tissue for death that can spread well up to the bone depth.

English: A close up shot of of the same bedsor...
Image via Wikipedia; Bedsore

The elderly are particularly at risk — simply because they tend to suffer more with poor circulation and are less mobile. In some cases, bedsores can develop in as little as four hours.
Younger people can also suffer them.
The presence of any bedsore has been linked to a four-fold increased risk of death. Through the broken skin bacteria can gain access to the circulation in addition to the local growth and spread. When they multiply nicely in the blood stream can cause a condition called septicemia which becomes life threatening in many cases.
There are four grades of bedsores;
  • Grade 1--Reddening or bruising of the skin.
  • Grade 2--Broken skin and shallow ulceration.
  • Grade 3—Large and/or deep ulceration.
  • Grade 4--Ulcers are so deep that in many cases the skin and muscle has completely worn away, revealing bone, and sometimes internal organs.
It is mostly a preventable condition. The detailed care of a bed ridden patient can be accessed here.
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