A Review on Efficacy of Electrical Stimulation in Treatment of Stages 1 and 2 of Pressure Ulcer

Background: According to the statistics, 1 out of 5 patients with disabilities, the elderly and inpatient, shows the symptoms of pressure ulcer. A pressure ulcer is a relatively common disease among these people that begins with simple skin damages (Stage 1) and can lead to muscle and bone injuries. The treatment in the early stages is essential, and various methods have been evaluated for it.Method: This study investigates the efficacy of electrical stimulation for the first and second stages of pressure ulcer. In this evaluation, articles were analyzed from databases including PubMed, Google Scholar, Web of Science and Scopus and done with keywords pressure ulcer, skin and electrical stimulation from 2014 to 2018.Result: After studying of titles, abstracts, and full text, eleven original articles were selected. There was no significant difference in complete pressure injury healing between adjunct electrical stimulation and standard wound care. However, there was a meaningful difference in wound surface area reduction favoring electrical stimulation. Also, patients and caregivers noted that electrical stimulation seemed to reduce the time of wound healing.Conclusion: The beneficial effects on the treatment of pressure ulcer and its reduction in time have been proven in previous studies. The used tools are also defined. However paying more attention to the voltage used for the more basic stages to control the possible side effects and see if more lower voltage electrical stimulation can replace the previous methods (High-voltage), can have a significant impact on the reduction in side effects and treatment costs

کلیدواژه ها:

Pressure ulcer ، Electrical stimulation ، Skin ، Wound