Investigation of the effect of sacral skin temperature in pressure ulcer development

This research is a descriptive study which aims to investigate the effect of the sacral skin temperature in pressure ulcer development. Target population of the study is composed of adult patients who were in Dokuz Eylul University Hospital Intensive Care Unit of Internal Medicine Department between the dates of March and August 2014. The sample of the study is comprised of 37 patients, who were older than 18 years, assessed at high risk using Braden scale and did not have pressure ulcer on admission and patients who stayed in the unit at least 5 days. In collecting the data, "The Identification Form" that was developed by the researcher in accordance with the related literature and "Braden Risk Assessment Scale" were used. The data were obtained from the patients on a daily basis and all the patients were followed until the end of the hospitalization or the development of pressure ulcer. In statistical evaluation of the data, number and percentage distributions, Student t test and One-Way Anova test, Pearson Product-Moment correlation test and Spearman's Rank-Order correlation test were used. In this study, it was found that the systolic blood pressure was lower in the patients, in whom the pressure ulcer developed (p<0.05), and there was no statistically significant difference as regards to the patients in whom the pressure ulcer had not developed according to their diastolic blood pressure, hemoglobin, body temperature, and sacral skin temperature parameters (p>0.05). It was determined that the body temperature affects supine and lateral position skin temperatures as positively, moderately and to a significant degree, besides reactive hyperemia response increases positively, in a high level, and statistically significant according to the skin temperature which was under pressure (p<0.05). There was no statistically significant difference between the gender and body mass index of the patients and their sacral skin temperature (p>0.05), on the other hand it was determined that depending on mattress and patients' age there are differences in the sacral skin temperature (p<0.05). In the result of the research, it is suggested that systolic blood pressure, age and the mattress' types must be considered as the risk factors at the development of the pressure ulcer, and the sacral skin temperature should not be used as an estimator in the development of pressure ulcer at the sacral region. Key words: Pressure ulcer; skin temperature; intensive care unit