Review: support surfaces, nutritional supplements, and topical agents help prevent pressure ulcers
Q What is the quality of evidence for various pressure ulcer prevention interventions?
METHODS
Data sources:
Medline, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, and CINAHL (to June 2006); Cochrane Library (Issue 1, 2006); UMI Proquest Digital Dissertations; ISI Web of Science; Cambridge Scientific Abstracts; and bibliographies of retrieved articles.
Study selection and assessment:
randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in any language that evaluated interventions for preventing pressure ulcers and reported objective, clinically relevant outcomes. 59 RCTs (n = 13 845) met the selection criteria. Quality assessment of individual studies was based on 6 elements from the CLEAR NPT checklist: randomisation procedure, allocation concealment, blinding of participants and outcome assessors, follow up, and intention to treat analysis.
Outcomes:
incidence of pressure ulcers.
MAIN RESULTS
Interventions that reduced pressure ulcer incidence are reported in the table. …
