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Risk constellation of hospital acquired pressure injuries in patients with a spinal cord injury/ disorder - focus on time since spinal cord injury/ disorder and patients’ age

Spinal Cord volume 61, pages 453–459 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Study design

Prospective cohort study.

Objectives

The aim of this study was to evaluate how time since spinal cord injury/disorder (SCI/D) and patients’ age influence risk constellation for hospital acquired pressure injuries (HAPI) in patients with a SCI/D.

Setting

Acute care and rehabilitation clinic specialized in SCI/D.

Methods

We collected patients’ characteristics and 85 risk factors for HAPI development in adults with SCI/D with at least one HAPI during their inpatient stay between August 2018 and December 2019. We analyzed patients’ characteristics and HAPI risk factors using descriptive statistics according to time since SCI/D ( < 1 year, 1–15 years, > 15 years) and patients’ age (18–35 years, 35–65 years, > 65 years).

Results

We identified 182 HAPI in 96 patients. Comparing patients with SCI/D < 1 year with the other groups, autonomic dysreflexia (p < 0.001), abnormal body temperature (p = 0.001), hypertensive episode (p = 0.005), and pneumonia (p < 0.001) occurred more frequently; mean hemoglobin (p < 0.001), albumin (p = 0.002) and vitamin D levels (p = 0.013) were significantly lower, and patients with time since SCI/D < 1 year scored fewer points (10–12) on the Braden Scale (p < 0.001). Comparing groups per patients’ age, only the SCIPUS score was higher in patients > 65 years compared to the other two groups (p = 0.002).

Conclusions

Different risk factor constellation seem to be underlying HAPI development with more differences in patients time since SCI/D than patients’ age. Awareness of these differences in risk factor constellation depending on time since SCI/D in these patients might lead to different HAPI prevention strategies.

Sponsorship

The study team didn't receive any additional sponsorship.

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Data availability

All data are stored by the corresponding author and can be requested individually from the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the “Decu Care Team” (Jessica Decker, Eva Kissling, Rita Müller, Diana Sigrist-Nix, Ivonne Zamzow) for assistance with data collection and Karin Gläsche as the main supervising and responsible nurse. A special recognition goes to Stefanie Tesini for the composition of the database.

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Charlotte Neuhauser, Clara O. Sailer.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Swiss Paraplegic Centre, Nottwil, Switzerland

    Charlotte Neuhauser, Klara Najmanova, Michael Baumberger & Anke Scheel-Sailer

  2. Department of Endocrinology, Diabetology and Metabolism, University Hospital Basel, Department of Clinical Research, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

    Clara O. Sailer

  3. SCAI-Lab, Department of Health Science and Technology, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

    Diego Paez-Granados

  4. Department of Plastic, Reconstructive, Aesthetic and Hand Surgery, University Hospital of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

    Dirk Johannes Schaefer & Reto Wettstein

  5. Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, University of Lucerne, Lucerne, Switzerland

    Anke Scheel-Sailer

Authors
  1. Charlotte Neuhauser
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Contributions

CN: study design, data collection, data interpretation, manuscript preparation and revision. COS: study design, data analysis and interpretation, manuscript preparation and revision. KN: study design, data collection, manuscript revision. MB, DJS, RW: study design, manuscript revision. DP-G: data analysis and interpretation, manuscript revision. AS-S: study design, data collection, data interpretation, manuscript preparation and revision.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anke Scheel-Sailer.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical approval

This study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Ethics Committees of Northwest and Central Switzerland on (protocol code EKNZ ID 2019-02179, date of approval 25th November 2019).

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Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

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Neuhauser, C., Sailer, C.O., Najmanova, K. et al. Risk constellation of hospital acquired pressure injuries in patients with a spinal cord injury/ disorder - focus on time since spinal cord injury/ disorder and patients’ age. Spinal Cord 61, 453–459 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41393-023-00910-5

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