In the pediatric population, pressure ulcers are acquired in different locations than adults due to their different proportions. Pressure ulcers will most likely occur under a boney prominence with a high interface pressure. There are many support surfaces and therapeutic beds available on the market but not many have been studied in pediatrics and their effectiveness in preventing pressure ulcers is undetermined. The purpose of this study is to evaluate interface pressures under boney prominences of children compared to their age/weight on several support surfaces to determine the most beneficial and cost-effective surface that will achieve low pressures. A low interface pressure would indicate a decrease in risk for pediatric patients to develop skin breakdown or a pressure ulcer. A pilot study design will be used to test the research questions on a convenient sample of 50-75 healthy children from the community, infant through 18 years of age. The support surface combinations will include a crib and hospital bed mattress, a Delta foam overlay for the crib and hospital mattress, a low-airloss bed by HillRom called the Efica and Gel-E-Donut pillows by Children's Medical Ventures. The instrument that will be used to obtain the interface pressures is the Mini Texas Interface Pressure Evaluator (Mini TIPE). A future research study will focus on only a few support surface combinations with the lowest interface pressures form this pilot study. These support surfaces will be randomized to critically ill patients in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and evaluated for their effectiveness in preventing pressure ulcers.
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