Preventing Bedsores

Bedsores, or decubitus ulcers, plague many patients who must remain immobile for long periods. But a device now in use at the Jersey City Medical Center seems to prevent such painful and potentially debilitating sores from developing. Drs. Joseph Timmes, Paul Harper and Joyce Rocko report in American Family Physician that they placed 48 patients on hospital-bed-size water mattresses. Of the 24 patients who already had bedsores, 71% were completely healed after staying on waterbeds for an average of 21.9 days. None of the other 24 patients, who were sore-free but considered sore-prone, developed decubitus ulcers after being on the waterbeds for an average of 27.5 days. The reason is simple. On a conventional mattress, a few pressure points bear most of the patient's weight; the pressure causes closing of capillaries, killing cells and resulting in sores at these points. On a water mattress, weight is evenly distributed, and no part of the body is subject to excess pressure.

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