Evaluation of the impact of a therapeutic educational program concerning the prevention of risk of pressure ulcers for persons with a spinal cord lesion

Introduction/Background We conducted a study measuring the impact of a program of therapeutic education concerning the prevention of risk of pressure ulcers for persons with a medullar lesion, during the chronic phase. Material and method This study concerns each person older than 18 with a medullar lesion, no matter the cause, having had pressure ulcer or not. The participants benefited from 2 collective workshops with for educational objective the prevention of the risk of pressure ulcer. Data are collected during an initial individual interview and after 3, 6 and 12 months. They are demographical and clinical and the results of different scales among which the Skin Management need assessment checklist revised (revised SMnac). The main evaluation criterion is the score of the revised SMnac. Results The results concern 20 middle-aged people 52 years. Nineteen have a traumatic spinal cord injury with median aged of lesion at 234 months (14–684). The last one has a congenital myelomeningocele. The results demonstrate a benefit shown by the very significant increase of the global score on SMnac revised after 3 months with stability at 6 and 12 months. Furthermore, the annual rate incidence of pressure ulcer went from 75% the year before the study to 55% during the study. Conclusion In literature, there is no evidence about the place of the therapeutic education in the management of the risk of pressure ulcer for the persons with medullar lesion and numerous questions remain unsettled including the timing moment to realize these educational programs, evaluation tools, type and duration of intervention. This study enables us to bring some answers on the impact of the therapeutic education during the chronic phase for persons with a medullar lesion on their knowledge and their practices in terms of prevention of the risk of pressure ulcer.