Aim:

to answer the question: Are repositioning effective in preventing pressure ulcers?

Methods:

Integrative review of the literature through identification of papers in the main databases related to health sciences: MEDLINE, CINAHL, sciELO, COCHRANE and CUIDEN, and by reverse search on identified articles. We included prospective studies, systematic reviews or other types of studies that evaluated the effectiveness of repositioning. There were no restrictions on publication dates until December 2014, patients, context, publication status or language.

Results:

From 108 articles, potentially relevant for the review, 13 were included: 6 clinical trials, 1 cohort study, 4 systematic reviews and one historical review, as well as a qualitative study. There is no solid evidence to recommend postural changes every 2 hours. But there is evidence that supports repositioning every 4 hours combined with a viscoelastic support surface.

Conclusions:

There are no studies that compare the effectiveness of repositioning versus nonrepositioning. The combination of a viscoelastic surface with repositioning every 3-4 hours has the best evidence. Patients in 90 degrees lateral decubitus have a rate almost 4 times higher than those who are at 30 degrees.

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