A comparative sudy of two pressure relieving techniques on three different wheelchair cushions

Abstract

Introduction: Pressure relief done by a spinal cordinjured patient is of utmost importance in order to prevent pressuresore formation. Some pressure-relieving techniques are describedin previous literature, but their effectivity has not yet been deter-mined on different wheelchair cushions.Null Hypothesis (H0): The null hypothesis (H0) stated for thistudy is that there is no difference in the effectivity of forwardleaning and forward leaning towards the left as pressure relievingtechniques for quadriplegic wheelchair users over the differenwheelchair cushions.Design: An analytical experimental study design using a convenient sample group of ten complete lesion quadriplegics (C6 to T1) was performed at the Physiotherapy Department,University of Pretoria.Method: Interface pressure (in mmHg) over the ischial tuberosities and upper thigh areas was measured using theTalley Oxford Pressure Monitor MKII with a 12-way matrix cell system.Results and Conclusion: The Friedman test for associated observations indicated statistically that the leaning diagonally forward pressure relieving technique is more effective for all three wheelchair cushions used in this study.

Prevention of Pressure Ulcers Among People With Spinal Cord Injury: A Systematic Review

“…As with the studies on bed positioning, there was significant heterogeneity of methods and outcomes of seated positioning and pressure relief maneuvers, precluding aggregation of study results. Study designs were primarily case series [51‐57], cohort [44,58‐63], or cross‐sectional [64‐72]. There was one N‐of‐1 study and one RCT [73,64].…”

“…Most studies (19) were conducted in a laboratory setting [44,51‐63,68‐72]. Six studies [64‐66,73] were conducted in the clinic, and two of these studies [67,74] were with community‐dwelling subjects. The total number of subjects examined across the 25 identified studies was 1148.…”

“…Of these subjects, 321 were able‐bodied individuals, 137 had paraplegia, 100 had tetraplegia, and the level of injury was not specified for 590 subjects with SCI. Nine studies examined seated pressures exclusively in able‐bodied persons [51‐57,70,71], and a like number of studies examined persons with SCI exclusively [64‐69,72‐74]. The remaining 7 studies examined both able‐bodied persons and those with SCI [44,58‐63].…”

“…The ischium was an anatomic site of interest in 17 studies [44,52,55,56,58,59,61,62,64‐71,73]. The next most common sites examined were the seating interface as a whole [51,53,54,57,60,63,72,74] and the buttocks.…”

“…The next most common sites examined were the seating interface as a whole [51,53,54,57,60,63,72,74] and the buttocks. The thighs [58,62,65] and the sacrum [57] received less focus. Pelvic rotation was the focus of 2 studies [55,56].…”