PREVALENCE OF PRESSURE ULCERS IN ELDERLY INPATIENT AND THE ROLE OF CAREGIVER

Abstract

Objective: To characterize the pressure ulcers in hospitalized elderly. Methodology: this is an exploratory study carried out at a public hospital in the city of Vitória da Conquista/BA, with a sample of 40 elderly patients with pressure ulcers. For data collection we used a questionnaire with sociodemographic and characterization of ulcers, and the data analyzed descriptively using the statistical program SPSS version 20.0. Results: It was found in this study that there was a greater distribution of elderly females (43.6%), married (38.5%), illiterate (61.5 %) and retired (46.2 %), with a mean age of 73.10 (± 9.31) years. Of the 39 patients included, showed 100.0 % Pressure Ulcer, 61.5 % had health problems associated with the presence of UP and 94.9 % reported previous skin injury. Most seniors presented ulcers located in the coccyx (97.4 %), with time 10 days (33.3 %), with much respect to one (1) ulcer (97.4 %) and infected (66.7 %) On the analysis of risk factors showed that the most frequent were: pressure points (28.2%), abnormal laboratory values (28.2%) and the presence of pathogens Chronic- degenerative (17.9%). Conclusion: Most of the elderly had health problems associated with the presence of ulcers and infected skin lesion prior reported. It was found that they showed infected pressure ulcers located in the coccyx with a skin lesion in advance.