SCIENCE, PRACTICE AND EDUCATION DOI: 10.35279/jowm2022.23.02.08 Analysis of real-world data from North American skilled nursing facilities’ skin and wound records for skin tear prevalence, healing and treatment Robert D. J. Fraser , 1,2 MN, RN, Rishabh Gupta , 1 Ph.D., Amy Cassata , 1 BSN, RN, WCC Heba Tallah Mohammed , 1 Ph.D., Justin Allport , 1 BASc, Sheila C. Wang , 1 Ph.D., MD, Jose L. Ramirez-GarciaLuna , 1,3 Ph.D., MD 1 Swift Medical Inc., Toronto, ON, Canada. 2 Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing, Western University, London, ON, Canada 3 Division of Experimental Surgery, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, QC, Canada Correspondence: rob.fraser@swiftmedical.com Conflict of interest: SW and JA are co-founders of Swift Medical Inc. RDJF, RG, AC, HTM and JLRG are employees of Swift. Keywords: Healing, prevalence, skin tear ABSTRACT Background Ageing populations are at risk of skin tears due to changes in their skin. Real-world data sets offer the ability to see current prevalence rates and practice changes to understand the size of the problem and glean practice insights. Results More than 1.5 million wounds were included in this dataset, and skin tears accounted for 10.3–12.8% of skin tears in SNFs over the five-year period. The prevalence of skin tears increased with age. Median healing time ranged from 15–27 days, based on skin tear classification. Aim Leveraging Swift Medical’s big data set, a point- prevalence analysis was conducted over five years on skin tears in skilled nursing facilities (SNF) in North America, to better understand time to heal and ex- plore the frequency of commonly used treatments and cleansing solutions for skin tears. Conclusion Big data sets can provide insight into current wound prevalence and practice patterns. The high preva- lence of skin tears highlights the need for standard- ised tools to assess risk and prevent skin tears, and to educate clinicians on classifying and treating skin tears effectively. Methods This descriptive prevalence study used a subset of an anonymised big dataset from participating SNFs across North America. Data from 188,675 skin tears in patients aged 20 years of age or older from 2017– 2021 were included. Relative prevalence compared to other wounds was analysed, and healing times based on skin tear classification and frequency of primary, secondary and cleansing solutions were reported. INTRODUCTION Skin tears are acute wounds where the epidermis is partially or fully separated from the underlying skin structures. 1 They are usually caused by mechanical trauma, such as blunt forces, chafing or friction. Although most skin tears are considered minor wounds 1 , if not adequately treated, they can rapidly progress into chronic complex wounds. 2-6 Skin tears are identified as one of the most com- mon wounds among older patients. 7 They can also 87 JOURNAL OF WOUND MANAGEMENT OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE EUROPEAN WOUND MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION
Share
Download PDF file
Build your own flipbook