FOURTEENTH ANNUAL EUROPEAN PRESSURE ULCER ...

Thursday September 1st
An introduction to skin-microclimate and how it influences skin integrity
Michael Clark
In the 1970’s the need to maintain a favorable microclimate between the skin and soft tissues in contact
with patient support surfaces was seen as a prime requirement for successful pressure ulcer prevention.
However, this element of pressure ulcer prevention was later overlooked as the drive towards support
surface use in load management became the prime focus of preventive interventions.
Excessive skin moisture and high relative humidity both weaken skin and increase the coefficient of friction
of skin, increasing the likelihood of damage from pressure, shear and friction. Raised skin temperature may
be related to pressure ulceration as this increases the metabolic demands of the local tissues, raising the
tissue’s requirement for oxygen and susceptibility to the ischemic effects of pressure and shear This session
will summarize the importance of microclimate management in pressure ulcer prevention and introduce the
new microclimate manager overlay and so provide a foundation for subsequent seminar presentations that
cover the new overlay, the available (pre-)clinical evidence and it’s clinical use in greater depth
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