Dressings and ajunctive therapies: AHCPR guidelines revisited.

The Agency for Health Care Policy and Research Pressure Ulcer Treatment Guidelines released in 1994 offered 11 recommendations relating to the use of dressings and adjunctive therapies. These recommendations were based on evidence gleaned from the medical literature from 1966 to mid-1993 as well as the accumulated expertise of a multidisciplinary advisory panel. As the recommendations are now 5 years old, a review of the literature published since 1993 was undertaken in order to determine additional evidence for their continued validity or disapproval. The review focused on evidence at the level of controlled clinical trials of dressings and adjunctive therapies in the treatment of pressure ulcers.