Prevalence of Pressure Ulcers in Different Parts of the Body after Surgery: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Located in a constant position during surgery, surgical patients are at risk of developing pressure sores, and attention to areas of the body that are more susceptible to pressure ulcers is important. This study aimed at determining the prevalence of pressure ulcers in different areas of the body after surgery.
This study was a systematic review and meta-analysis, conducted during year 2015, using the following key words, Pressure ulcer, Prevalence, surgical patient, and meta-analysis, in the following databases, PubMed, Google scholar, Scopus, Science direct, and Web of Science. The search was conducted in English language from January 2000 to October 2015 and studied the prevalence of pressure ulcers in different parts of the body after surgery. The Stata software was used for data analysis and criteria for pressure ulcer incidence of error in each study was calculated based on the binomial distribution formula. Finally, heterogeneity index (heterogeneity) by Cochran test (Q) was determined.
First, the findings of 105 articles were considered regarding the inclusion criteria, and 13 articles were included in the study. In this study, 7 main body areas with the highest prevalence of pressure ulcers were identified. The most common was sacral pressure ulcer (15.3 to 3.3; 9.3%), followed by buttocks (8.5 to 4.1; 6.3%) and heel (6.4 to 2.5; 4.4) ulcers.
According to the findings preoperative identification of patients at risk of pressure ulcer and the use of position changes and appropriate pressure-lowering action, particularly in the areas mentioned above, could reduce the risk of injury in these areas.