Quantifying and Visualizing the Pressure Distribution of In-Bed Positions to Reduce Pressure Injury Risk

OBJECTIVE: Pressure injuries (PIs) are a major health care issue, and timely and correct repositioning of patients at risk for PIs is crucial in lowering the PI risk. However, the ideal bed positions and the impact on the PI risk are often unclear to health care staff. Therefore, the authors used a pressure-detecting mat to quantify and visualize the effects of bed settings and body position on the pressure distribution to provide insightful graphics for educating health care staff. METHODS: The authors quantitatively assessed and visualized the pressure distribution of different in-bed lying and sitting positions with a pressure-measuring mat on 2 different hospital mattresses by including healthy volunteers. RESULTS: Differences between positions were visualized by the pressure mat. The median pressure on the sacrum increased by 30% to 35% when the head of bed (HOB) angle was raised from 0° to 30° and further increased 17% to 27% when the HOB angle was raised from 30° to 45°. Pressure on sacrum, when sitting with an HOB angle of 30°, reduced by 19% to 35% when raising the legs to semi-Fowler position. During lateral rotation, median pressure on the greater trochanter increased by 27% to 35% when rotating from 30° to 60°. Pressures are reported in a range between the 2 different mattresses. CONCLUSIONS: Pressure maps and peak pressure values of the different bed positions can help educate nurses on how body position changes the pressure distribution and provides additional support to follow the international guideline on PI prevention.