Wound dressings for pressure ulcers

As a guideline to the treatment of chronic wounds including pressure ulcers, Wound Bed Preparation (WBP) was proposed in 2000. Meanwhile, the Japanese Society of Pressure Ulcers issued the guideline for the prevention and management of pressure ulcers in 2009. Clinical questions, such as "What kind of wound dressing should be used" for the prevention of pressure ulcers, superficial pressure ulcers, and deep pressure ulcers, are provided with statements of recommendation and the degree of recommendation in the guideline. For deep pressure ulcers, statements of recommendation and the degree of recommendation are described by subdividing into 6 items of "removal of necrotic tissues," "control of infection and inflammation, " "exudates control, " "treatment of pocket wounds, " "scale-down of wounds, " and "facilitating granulation. " In this article, we reviewed the role of wound dressing expected in the treatment of pressure ulcers, in accordance with the concepts of the guideline and WBP, also bearing in mind the uniqueness of the mechanism of development for pressure ulcers which is different from other chronic wounds.