Skin tears in older patients in intensive care units: A multicentre point prevalence study.
Hatice Yuceler Kacmaz, Hilal Kahraman, Ayşe Topal Hancer and 6 others
PMID 39032130WHAT IT FOUND
Skin tears were found in 14.5% of older ICU patients, most often on the hand.
They were more common with pale, cold, low-turgor skin, prior tears, incontinence, reduced consciousness, higher fall risk and lower Braden score.
Key findings
01Skin tears were detected in 14.5% of the 200 ICU patients, and 72.5% were stage 1.
02The hand was the most common area, with 37.9% of tears.
03Patients with skin tears had lower BMI (23.49 vs 25.26), older age (78.83 vs 74.91), longer ICU stay (19.90 vs 10.14 days), lower Braden score (12.83 vs 16.06) and higher ITAKI score (15.5 vs 12.75).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study measured skin tears on one day in five hospitals in one region, so it cannot be applied to all ICU patients. No power analysis was done to determine the required sample size. The study did not include some ICU severity scales or nutritional assessment scales. Because all measurements were taken at one time point, the associations cannot show cause or effect.
Declared interests
The authors state that the study received no funding.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat age, BMI, skin appearance, incontinence or consciousness as proven causes of skin tears. This was a single-day prevalence study, so it can only show that these features were more common among patients with skin tears.