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Arterial Pressure Injuries

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A pressure injury is when an amount of pressure is applied to the skin over a bony prominence causing the skin or tissue to breakdown resulting in an injury. In Cathy Hess’s article “Arterial Ulcer Checklist” she stated “Arterial insufficiency refers to impairment of arterial blood flow leading to tissue ischemia and potentially necrosis” (Hess, 2010). They are classified into stages, with stage one being the low-grade injury with erythema and temperature to the unstageable or deep tissue injury that is ulcerated with skin breakdown. I decided to write about arterial insufficiency ulcers. The cause of these injuries varies but one of the common reasons is due to vascularity problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure, smoking, arteriosclerosis…show more content…
In an arterial injury, it will look as if the injury is “punched out” with round and smooth edges. These injuries are very painful. The injury will usually appear creating a hairless area and may be cooler than other areas of the body. Some common areas for these injuries to appear are the leg, foot, heels and toes. Arterial injuries can be classified as a full thickness wound which adipose tissue is visible and granulation tissue is present. Full thickness injuries usually expose the underlying structures and can be either deep or shallow depending on the severity. There may be visible necrotic tissue in the wound bed if the injury happens to be under treated or other contributing…show more content…
The area of the injury must be observed for how well the circulation to this area is. While preparing for treatment, nurses can use a chart called the “Braden Scale” which determines different factors that contributed to the injury, which will give them a better idea about which treatment plan they should follow. In DeWitt’s “Medical-Surgical Concepts and Practices” it describes the scale having 6 factors that can contribute to a pressure injury as in “sensory perception, moisture, activity, mobility, nutrition, and friction and shear” (DeWitt, 2013). It is easier to prevent pressure injuries than it is to treat them, that is why constant interventions are created to decrease the incidences of pressure injuries. A patient with an arterial pressure injury, depending on the severity will have a reduction in pressure over the area. Once the damage is done, the next measure is to relieve the pain and begin to start treatments. One simple way to help alleviate the pain is to dangle the affected area. This causes the blood to pull towards the feet increasing the blood flow to the lower extremities. One of the more tolerable treatments for an arterial pressure injury is to loosely wrap the affected area after receiving the cleaning. Other simple suggestions are to stop smoking, maintenance of high blood pressure, proper care if diabetic and change in diet.
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