Editor's note: In honor ofAdvances in Skin & Wound Care's 20th year of publication, this editorial is a reprint from the first issue of the journal, formerly calledDecubitus, published in February 1988.
Welcome to the first issue of DECUBITUS: A Compendium of prevention and treatment of pressure ulcers. This new publication will be THE RESOURCE for all healthcare professionals interested in prevention and treatment of pressure ulcers. It will contain the latest information on what's going on in the pressure ulcer field.
Pressure ulcers are rapidly becoming a major health problem in this era of short hospital stays, increasing severity of illness, lack of support systems in the home, and shortage of nurses. The estimated cost of pressure ulcer care per year is $6.5 billion with $640 million spent on treatment products alone. There is no way to count the cost in human suffering or lost productivity. To decrease the cost and the suffering, this publication will provide a rich resource for all facets of prevention and treatment of pressure ulcers.
We have assembled a multidisciplinary editorial advisory board whose interest and expertise in pressure ulcers span several decades and encompass many aspects of prevention and treatment. These experts agree that the problem of pressure ulcers belongs to no one group of healthcare professionals; all on the healthcare team must work together to diminish the incidence and severity of pressure ulcers. They are aware of the difficulty of keeping abreast of the latest developments and research in the field and will provide up-to-date information through previous unpublished articles, book reviews, abstracts, notices of upcoming meetings, educational opportunities, legislative activity, and product descriptions. This publication can become the primary resource, the "index to decubitus literature and practice," which will save hours of valuable time in searching for answers to pressure ulcer problems.
If health professionals are to succeed in preventing pressure ulcers, they need to establish standards in reporting, become more sophisticated in prevention and publicize scientific bases for all types of treatment. The present reality is that even simple aspects such as the staging of pressure ulcers have no uniformly accepted standard. The pages of this journal will serve as a forum to discuss this and other aspects of prevention and treatment. Send your comments or questions; dialogue with the editorial board; network with others across the country who have faced similar problems in prevention or treatment and have found an answer. The newly formed group, National Pressure Advisory Panel (reported elsewhere in this issue) will also provide a vehicle for consensus on standards and for information sharing.
Why was the name DECUBITUS chosen for this new publication? That is the classic Latin term for what experts are currently calling pressure ulcers, lay people call bedsores, and many health professionals call decubiti. Decubitus means lying down as in bed; that is how the term bedsore developed. (Just for the record, the plural of decubitus is not decubiti. The plural of fourth declension Latin words ends in "us". Decubitus is both singular and plural). Many ulcers, however, develop in wheelchairs; others are the result of vascular occlusion due to sclerosis, sickled cells, or trauma. Perhaps the correct term is not pressure ulcers at all; that term can be confused with stomach ulcers resulting from the pressure and stress of life. Maybe the correct term is vascular occlusion ulcers. Then we could call them VOU[horizontal ellipsis]and vow to prevent them. For now, the term decubitus symbolically expresses the focus of this journal.
Roberta Abruzzese