When you suffer from an illness or injury, you will likely end up bedridden for a period of time. During this time, you may think that you will be safe from further physical stress or injury. After all, you are simply lying in bed, right?
But this is the prime time for pressure ulcers to occur, and these injuries can cause you more than just a little pain or discomfort.
What causes bedsores?
Mayo Clinic looks into pressure ulcers, colloquially known by the name bedsores. These injuries occur on the skin and the underlying tissue and happen due to prolonged pressure on one area of the body. Generally speaking, you will most often see pressure ulcers occur on the boniest parts of the body such as the ankles, heels, hips and tailbone due to the proximity of the bone to the surface of the skin.
Bedsores may occur over days, or they can actually begin to appear after just a few hours. Some never heal completely even with treatment, though most will, fortunately, get better over time.
How do you prevent them?
It is important for bed-bound people to move every so often in order to prevent pressure ulcers from appearing. In some cases, this means that an assistant or medical staff member will need to physically turn you over, evenly distributing the pressure across the surface of your body without you having to get up and move around yourself.
You should always take pressure ulcers seriously. These injuries can leave deep tissue scarring all the way to the bone, leaving victims with painful open lesions that can seriously impact the overall quality of life.
