Disease State: Pressure Ulcer Risk
Background
Pressure ulcers/injuries are lesions of the skin and/or underlying soft tissues caused by prolonged and/or elevated exposure to compressive and shearing forces. Pressure ulcers can cause symptoms including pain, exudate and odour, and compromise all areas of patient functioning, which consequently reduce quality of life. As pressure ulcers are considered to be largely preventable, their occurrence is widely used as a quality indicator/patient safety parameter. An important outcome of pressure ulcer prevention trials is the measurement of the pressure ulcer occurrence. However, substantial cross-trial variance and within-trial risk of bias have been noted with regard to this outcome measure. Many other outcomes are also reported in prevention trials, such as: pathophysiological changes, including tissue oxygenation and skin barrier changes; patient-reported outcomes including comfort, pain and quality of life; and health resource/economic outcomes. However, there are no agreed standards for which outcomes are of most importance and which measurement instruments, or methods should be favored.
Project Goal
To develop a core outcome sets for pressure ulcer prevention trials.
Project Leads
Jan Kottner
Executive Committee
Jane Nixon
Key Project Team Members
Susanne Coleman
Katrin Balzer
C3 Methods Partner
Jamie Kirkham
Contact
Jan Kottner, jan.kottner@charite.de
Publications
Lechner A, Kottner J, Coleman S, Muir D, Bagley H, Beeckman D, Chaboyer W, Cuddigan J, Moore Z, Rutherford C, Schmitt J, Nixon J, Balzer K. Outcomes for Pressure Ulcer Trials (OUTPUTs): protocol for the development of a core domain set for trials evaluating the clinical efficacy or effectiveness of pressure ulcer prevention interventions. Trials. 2019;20(1):449. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31331366/
Lechner A, Kottner J, Coleman S, Muir D, Beeckman D, Chaboyer W, Cuddigan J, Moore Z, Rutherford C, Schmitt J, Nixon J, Balzer K. Outcomes for Pressure Ulcer Trials (OUTPUTs) project: review and classification of outcomes reported in pressure ulcer prevention research. Br J Dermatol. 2021;184(4):617-626. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32510579/
Updated on May 1, 2022