Home > Encyclopedia of Medicine > Bedsores

Definition

Bedsores are also called decubitus ulcers, pressure ulcers, or pressure sores. These tender or inflamed patches develop when skin covering a weight-bearing part of the body is squeezed between bone and another body part, or a bed, chair, splint, or other hard object.

Description

Each year, about one million people in the United States develop bedsores ranging from mild inflammation to deep wounds that involve muscle and bone. This often painful condition usually starts with shiny red skin that quickly blisters and deteriorates into open sores that can harbor life-threatening infection.

Bedsores are not cancerous or contagious. They are most likely to occur in people who must use wheelchairs or who are confined to bed. In 1992, the federal Agency for Health Care Policy and Research reported that bedsores afflict:

• 10%...