Surgical management of a series of pressure ulcers: Report of 61 cases

Introduction. - Retrospective study about pressure ulcers surgical treatments in a series of 61 in 43 patients. Objective. - To assess the management of pressure ulcers in spinal cord injury patients who had been operated in our institution. Results. - On the 61 pressure ulcers, location was ischial in 35 cases, sacral in 15 cases, trochanteric in 7 cases, lateral malleolar in 2 cases, on the heel in 1 case, and 1 was located lateral to the fibular head. Comorbidities were searched pre- and postoperatively. Fifty-five muscular, cutaneous flaps or myocutaneous, 5 fasciocutaneous and 1 excision/suture were realized. The mean follow-up was 8.6 years, and we observed 9 pressure ulcers recurrences (14.8%). We had a total result of 15 (24.6%) complicated pressure ulcers, with 8 early complications (13.1%) and 7 delay (11.5%). Antibiotic therapy was prescribed in 54 (88.5%) surgery cases and 7 were operated without any (11.5%). Conclusion. - Pressure ulcers are major public health focus that need to be improved. A multidisciplinary care, mixed with education of patients are mandatory to achieve these goals: reduce complications and recurrences. Thanks to muscle sparring, perforators flap should become the gold standard of pressure ulcers surgery. (C) 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.