Factors Predicting Pressure Injury Incidence in Older Adults Following Elective Total Hip Arthroplasty: A Longitudinal Study

OBJECTIVE: To identify the factors associated with pressure injury (PI) development in older adult patients who underwent elective total hip arthroplasty (THA). METHODS: A nonexperimental longitudinal prospective study was conducted with a sample of 40 patients undergoing elective THA. Patients were evaluated for PI at hospital admission, 24 hours postsurgery, at discharge, and 1 month after surgery. RESULTS: The incidence of PIs (category 1 or category 2) in this study was 7.9% 24 hours after surgery and 24.3% at discharge. The most common PI location was the sacrum/coccyx or the ischial tuberosity. This study found significant relationships between PIs and female sex (odds ratio [OR], 8.75), body fat mass percentage (OR, 1.15), and the motor score from a Functional Independence Measure scale (OR, 0.89). Finally, the following variables were also associated with PIs (P < .1): skeletal muscle mass (OR, 0.82), lower limb with osteoarthritis weight (OR, 0.61), lower limb without osteoarthritis weight (OR, 0.62), and geriatric depression scale (OR, 1.12). CONCLUSIONS: This work identifies those patients at higher risk of PI, enabling targeted prevention and treatment in the population of patients undergoing elective THA. The findings of this study are in line with extant literature and suggest that women with a higher percentage of body fat and less mobility had a higher risk of PI.