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Although much progress has been made in the prevention and the treatment of pressure ulcers (PUs),¹ they are still a common problem for patients. Pressure ulcers are more likely to occur in patients who are critically ill; patients who have had a prolonged surgery, a stroke, or a spinal injury; and frail elderly patients and individuals using wheelchairs in long-term care settings. In intensive care settings over the past 10 years, PU prevalence ranged from 4% to 49%.² Also in the past decade, patients with surgery-related PUs had an incidence of 15%, with 95% confidence intervals (CI) 14%-16%.³ For patients who had a stroke over the past 10 years, the PU prevalence ranged from 17% to 28%.⁴ In long-term care settings, again over the past decade, the prevalence of PUs ranged from 3.5% to 16.9%.^5-7

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