Article Text

Download PDFPDF
Pressure sensing and pressure redistribution mattress for prevention and management of pressure injuries
  1. Hong Liang Tey1,2,
  2. Crystal Zhen Yu Phuan1,
  3. Joey Sok Theng Tan3,
  4. Sufang Yang3,
  5. Nwe Oo Hnin3,
  6. Shu Yin Hoi3
  1. 1 National Skin Centre, Singapore
  2. 2 Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
  3. 3 Nursing, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore
  1. Correspondence to Dr Hong Liang Tey; teyhongliang{at}ntu.edu.sg

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

Summary

  • Pressure injuries and ulcers result in high morbidity and healthcare burden and contribute to burnout of caregivers.

  • The Smart Automated Body-Pressure Redistributor (SABR) is a mattress device designed to sense body pressure and automatically redistribute the air pressures in the underlying air bladders supporting the body.

  • This technical study demonstrated that the SABR mattress device is able to reliably detect and alleviate high pressure and provide sustained avoidance of high pressures underlying the body.

  • This device can potentially be used for the prevention and management of pressure injuries and when scaled-up and can possibly contribute to the reduction of healthcare burden in the ageing population.

Introduction

A pressure injury or ulcer is a localised injury to the skin and/or underlying tissue, usually over a bony prominence, as a result of pressure, or pressure in combination with shear and/or friction.1 This is a critical issue not only for patients, increasing morbidity and mortality, but also for healthcare workers, contributing to burnout from continuous turning of patients, which greatly increase healthcare costs. Pressure ulcers are a source of multiple complications, and are associated with poorer function, reduced mobility and diminished ability to perform self-care.2 The estimated prevalence of pressure injuries is 18.1% among patients in a tertiary hospital in Singapore in 2019, while the incidence was 3.4 per 1000 admissions.3 In the USA, cost estimates for a single case of a pressure ulcer range from US$500 to US$150 000, with a total cost amounting to US$11 billion annually.4 In addition, the death toll secondary to complications from pressure injuries account for approximately 60 000 deaths per year in the USA alone.5

Pressure injuries most commonly occur over the bony prominences of the sacral and hip regions, with the lower extremities affected in less than 25% of cases.6 The differing …

View Full Text

Footnotes

  • Contributors All authors have contributed significantly and all authors are in agreement with the content of the manuscript.

  • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

  • Competing interests HL Tey is supported by the Clinician Scientist Award (NMRC/CSAINV20nov-0003) from the National Medical Research Council, Ministry of Health of Singapore.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

  • © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.