Effectiveness of the Freedom Bed, Automatic Continuous Lateral Rotation Therapy System as Compared to a Standard Hospital Mattress With Manual Caregiver Turning Every 2 Hours for Prevention of Pressure Injuries in Persons With Limited Mobility Due to Traumatic Brain Injury and/or Spinal Cord Injury.
Effectiveness of the Freedom Bed, Automatic Continuous Lateral Rotation Therapy System as Compared to a Standard Hospital Mattress With Manual Caregiver Turning Every 2 Hours for Prevention of Pressure Injuries in Persons With Limited Mobility Due to Traumatic Brain Injury and/or Spinal Cord Injury.
Observational comparison on Incidence of Pressure Injury between the Freedom Bed Automated Continuous lateral Rotation Therapy System and Manual Caregiver Re-positioning every 2 hours on a standard Hospital Bed.
This study will include 8 vent dependent subjects with comparable diagnoses and nutritional levels. Of the subjects selected, 4 subjects will be placed on Freedom Beds and 4 will be placed on standard hospital beds for a period not less than 6 months. A waiver of informed consent is required prior to bed placement and data collection. Consented subjects will have primary and secondary diagnosis recorded, pressure mapping in supine 30-degree elevation, assessment of ventilator / oxygen support measured, oxygenation levels, nutrition levels, and estimated cardiac condition. Subjects will receive daily skin assessments and treatment as prescribed by the attending physician with weekly measurements and reporting of values. Subjects will continue until they reach one of the study endpoints: 1) discharge from the vent unit, or 2) withdrawal of informed consent, or 3) completion of the 6-month study.
Subjects placed on the Freedom Bed will be automatically turned in accordance with positions determined as optimal by initial pressure mapping and approved by the attending physician. All programmable turning angles, dwell times, head and leg elevations must be "dialed in" within a week of the study beginning. Any modification to the program during the study must be approved by the care team and documented accordingly.
Subjects placed on standard hospital bed will require manual re-positioning every 2 hours. All turning and/or re-positioning must be timed and documented.
Subjects who experience either development of pressure injuries, or worsening of their skin condition to the point a specialty bed is required will be deemed a test failure.
The primary and secondary outcome measures documented on each subject throughout the week will be collected by the Clinical Research Coordinator (CRC) on a weekly basis and submitted to the Principal Investigator. The weekly reports will then be consolidated by the CRC into a monthly report and submitted to the Institutional Review Board (IRB), Principal Investigators (PI) and Supervising Authorities (SA) for review.
Inclusion Criteria:
Subjects or their legal representative able to provide written consent for study Must be rated between 6-12 on the Baden Scale Must be immobile and unable to preposition themselves. Must be within weight range of designated support surface.
Exclusion Criteria:
Subjects with unstable spinal fractures. Subjects with significant involuntary spasms. Subjects with severe scoliosis. A user must be able to lie in a partial back lying position.
Subjects considered morbidly obese.