bed sores

[jewett]

patients in hospital beds are rotated every 2 hours to prevent bedsores. exactly why is this effective?

[theprof]

To understand this, you need to know what a bedsore is.

Bedsores (pressure sores is now the preferred term), are areas of damaged skin tissue that arise because of constant and sustained pressure that cuts off circulation to exposed parts of your body. When blood circulation to the affected area is cut off, the affected tissue dies.The hips, heels and buttocks are most commonly affected although they can occur on other areas.

Rotating the patient prevents prolonged pressure on the same areas of the body exceeding two hours. In this way, the reduced circulation to the tissue upon which the body has been resting for this time is re-established again with hopefully, no ill-effects. In other words, bedsores will have had no time to form.