Objectives:

To assess prevalence evolution for pressure ulcers and Incontinence-Associated Dermatitis, at an acute care hospital.

Method:

Descriptive study analysing the prevalence in a series, conducted at an acute care hospital through Gacela Care software programme data use, during the years 2014 to 2017.

Result:

From a total of 20,319 patients, 760 pressure ulcers and 8 incontinence associated dermatitis were registered. The mean pressure ulcer prevalence was 3.74% throughout the study. Nosocomial lesions showed a statistically significant decrease (p=0.013), from 69.1% in 2014, to 56.4% in 2017. A statistically significant difference was observed in the prevalence of these lesions among medical units and surgical units in the last two years of the study, 70.8% vs. 29.2% respectively in 2016 (p = 0.004) and 74.2% vs. 25.8% in 2017 (p<0,001). Category III pressure ulcers prevalence showed a significant decrease (p=0.028), from 16.3% in 2014 to 8.3% in 2017. Category II pressure ulcers do increase not significantly.

Conclusion:

For the period studied, both pressure ulcers and incontinence associated dermatitis prevalence is lower regarding the national average. Pressure ulcers prevalence seems to be larger in medical units than in surgical ones, and more than half of the ones registered happen to be nosocomial. Category III pressure ulcers proportion suffers a statistically significative decrease during the period studied, whereas those classified as category II, increase, understanding this fact as an improvement on the wounds approach, from nurse professionals.

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