Wound Central · 2021

Proposal for a New Pressure Ulcer (Pressure Injury) Classification Based on Depth, Infection and Perfusion

Manzotti-Rodriguez, A.C., Lozano-Platonoff, A., Serena, T.E., Bryant, R., & Contreras-Ruiz, J.

Wound Central (MA Healthcare), Sept 2021, Vol 5, Issue 4, p330

In brief

This article proposes the DIP classification for pressure ulcers (pressure injuries), adapted from the University of Texas Diabetic Foot Classification, which grades ulcers by depth and stages them by the presence of infection and ischemia. Grades run from 0 (pre- or post-ulcerative lesion) to 3 (bone, joint or implanted material involved), with grade X when depth cannot be assessed, and stages A to D indicate neither condition, infection, ischemia, or both. The authors argue that, unlike depth-only systems, it separates ulcers with bone or joint involvement and expects restaging as wounds improve or worsen; the paper presents it as a proposal and does not report validation testing.

Co-authored by Dr. Thomas Serena, SerenaGroup's founder.

Plain-language summary by SerenaGroup. See the full text for complete methods and results.

Abstract

Pressure ulcers (PU) represent a major cause of morbidity and reduced quality of life for patients in long-term care facilities and hospitals and come at high costs to individuals and health care systems across the globe. A comprehensive evaluation of PU facilitates therapeutic decisions and effective management, which in turn can reduce complications, costs, and healing times. However, most classification systems for PU focus mainly on wound depth and do not consider other factors that impact management and prognosis, while others have proven to be too cumbersome for everyday clinical use. A proposal for a simple, comprehensive PU classification system based on the University of Texas Diabetic Foot Classification contemplating wound depth, infection status and vascular supply is hereby presented.

Keywords

Pressure ulcerpressure-related injurydecubitus ulcerclassification

Proposal for a New Pressure Ulcer (Pressure Injury) Classification Based on Depth, Infection and Perfusion

In brief

Abstract

Keywords

Related in Clinical Guidelines and Wound Care Practices