Pressure Injury Prevention: A Survey.

Pressure injuries are caused by prolonged pressure to an area of the body, which can result in open wounds that descend to the bone. Pressure injuries should not occur in healthcare settings, and yet, they still affect 2.5 million patients in the United States and have an impact on quality of life. Pressure injuries come at a cost of $11 billion in the United States, and 90% of pressure injuries are a secondary condition. In this paper, we survey the literature on preventative techniques to address pressure injures, which we classify into two categories: active prevention strategies and sensor-based risk-factor monitoring. Within each category of techniques, we discuss the literature and assess each class of strategies based on its commercial availability, results of clinical trials when available, the ability for the strategy to save time for healthcare staff, and whether the technique can be tuned to an individual. Based on our findings, the most promising current solutions, supplementary to nursing guidelines, are electrical stimulation, pressure monitoring, and inertial measurement unit monitoring. We also find a need for a clinical software system that can easily integrate with custom sensors, use custom analysis algorithms, and provide visual feedback to the healthcare staff.