Abstract
During surgery, the patient is in high risk for developing pressure ulcers. It is important for the nurse anaesthetist to achieve a high quality work to reduce the risks of injury. The aims of this literature review were to evaluate the effectiveness of different special OR (operating room) mattresses, and compare them with standard mattresses in preventing pressure ulcer. The nine reports included in this literature review were found in the databases PubMed, Cinahl and Cochrane. Five of the studies compared standard OR mattresses with special mattresses. The main result when using the special mattresses was a reduction in the incidence of pressure sore. Seven studies compared different special mattresses. The foam mattress and the gel mattress seemed to have insufficient effect in preventing pressure ulcer. The use of visco-elastic polymer mattress, a multi-cell pulsating dynamic OR mattress and a fluid, pressure-reducing OR mattress all resulted in a reduction of pressure ulcer incidence. This literature review shows that there is a large opportunity and an important work for the nurse to make interventions to prevent pressure ulcer in patients during surgery.