Pressure sores: Causation and cost, biomechanics and prevention

The prevention and treatment of pressure sores.

Research questions The review sought to answer two questions.

Pressure Sores

DESCRIPTION A 31-year-old man with known history of paraplegia presents to clinic with a long-standing wound as shown earlier. The wound is located in the presacral region with intact periosteum, healthy overlying fascia, and no purulence.

Prevention of pressure sores by identifying patients at risk.

The risk of pressure sores developing in patients admitted with acute conditions was assessed by a simple risk score system based on age, reduced mobility, incontinence, pronounced emaciation, redness over bony prominences, unconsciousness, dehydration, and paralysis in a prospective clinical study. During seven months in 1977, 600 of 3571 patients were classified as at risk. Of these 35 (5.8%)...

Cost and Actual Causation

I propose the purpose our concept of actual causation serves is minimizing various cost in intervention practice. Actual causation has three features: non-redundant sufficiency, continuity and abnormality; these features correspond to the minimization of exploitative cost, exploratory cost and risk cost in intervention practice. Incorporating these three features, a definition of actual causati...

Cancer: Causation, Prevention and Treatment