Effectiveness of a multi‐layer foam dressing in preventing sacral pressure ulcers for the early acute care of patients with a traumatic spinal cord injury: comparison with the use of a gel mattress

Individuals with spinal cord injury are at risk of sacral pressure ulcers due to, among other reasons, prolonged immobilisation. The effectiveness of a multi‐layer foam dressing installed pre‐operatively in reducing sacral pressure ulcer occurrence in spinal cord injured patients was compared to that of using a gel mattress, and stratified analyses were performed on patients with complete tetraplegia and paraplegia. Socio‐demographic and clinical data were collected from 315 patients admitted in a level‐I trauma centre following a spinal cord injury between April 2010 and March 2016. Upon arrival to the emergency room and until surgery, patients were transferred on a foam stretcher pad with a viscoelastic polymer gel mattress (before 1 October 2014) or received a multi‐layer foam dressing applied to their sacral‐coccygeal area (after 1 October 2014). The occurrence of sacral pressure ulcer during acute hospitalisation was similar irrespective of whether patients received the dressing or the gel mattress. It was found that 82% of patients with complete tetraplegia receiving the preventive dressing developed sacral ulcers as compared to only 36% of patients using the gel mattress. Although multi‐layer dressings were suggested to improve skin protection and decrease pressure ulcer occurrence in critically ill patients, such preventive dressings are not superior to gel mattresses in spinal cord injured patients and should be used with precaution, especially in complete tetraplegia.