August 29, 2022
The Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) in the USA have published new PI/U Prevention Guidelines.
Inside the guidelines, they recommend using technology-based skin assessments that focus on the biophysical changes (including the biophysical marker, Biocapacitance) with the following rationale:
“Often, by the time PI/U presents at the skin surface, deep necrosis of the tissue has already occurred, and the damage is likely irreversible. Therefore, there is a need to progress from the skin assessments that are traditionally done to technology-based examinations of tissue status”.
The guidelines also highlight how “darkly pigmented skin should be assessed by checking for the presence of oedema”.
Provizio SEM Scanner is intended as an adjunct to the current standard of care when assessing the heal and sacrum of patients who are at increased risk of PI/Us. It works by detecting inflammatory oedema via identifying a biophysical marker called the biocapacitance, regardless of skin tones.
For further information on sub-epidermal moisture and biocapacitance, please see this paper on the subject: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31358396/.
