Dispositivos protetores de calcanhares eficazes na prevenção de úlcera de pressão

Abstract

The pressure ulcer (PU) is defined as "a localized area of skin damage and underlying tissue caused by pressure, shearing, friction or the combination of these factors." The regions most often affected are: sacral, ischial, heels and malleoli side. The heel is one of the risk areas that need special attention. The recommendation to minimize pressure at that location and prevent the use of PU is provided to keep the heels away from surfaces. Because of the many questions and disagreements over the use of these devices and the existence of different kinds of them on the market was held that this study aims to demonstrate the overall effectiveness of protection devices for preventing heel PU. We adopted the evidence-based practice (EBP) as a theoretical and integrative review as methodological. The search was conducted of articles in the database Pub Med and Medline in, Cochrane Library, LILACS, and SciELO IBECS and identified 29 studies. Of this total, 5 were selected as sample being 2 randomized controlled trials, two randomized controlled trials and one descriptive study. From the obtained sample, we identified 8 different types of heel protectors, of which 5 were recommended by their respective authors and only 4 were recommended in this review. We conclude that to prevent heel PU is necessary to have knowledge of the new recommendations as well as recent studies that evaluate the heels of protective devices for prevention of UP. There is a need to conduct more studies classified as strong evidence inferring the reliability of the results brought by the authors, supporting evidence-based practice and can therefore recommend such devices.