What is Pressure Management?
In short, pressure management is the process of absorbing and redistributing pressure evenly across the entire surface of your body. Pressure management is an important part of treating sleeplessness caused from back pain, lower back pain, Fibromyalgia, arthritis, and restless leg syndrome.
Equalizing pressure on your joints and spine reduces pain and helps you get a restful, deep sleep. Tempur-Pedic® Swedish mattresses provide patients with the ultimate pressure management system, offering comfort, support and deep, restful sleep.
Excellent Pressure Redistribution with Proprietary TEMPUR ® Material
Our exclusive TEMPUR material is a premium, high-density, temperature-sensitive viscoelastic material which exhibits fluid-like properties when used at typical room temperatures. It gently flows to the patient, conforming exactly to the body, for even pressure redistribution. This provides exceptionally high levels of pressure management, comfort, and support not found in regular foam or “memory” foam.
Tempur-Pedic Mattresses:
- Absorb and redistribute pressure evenly across the entire surface
- Provide the proper body support and alignment for effective pain management
- Reduce friction and pressure peaks
- Improve blood flow in high-risk areas such as the scapula or sacrum
- Decrease potential for tissue ischemia; maintain skin integrity
Experience Luxurious Comfort
Tempur-Pedic Mattresses provide the kind of comfort and sleep possible only with the #1 brand in premium bedding. Our mattresses are clinically demonstrated to decrease agitation in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Additionally, our mattresses lead to increased patient satisfaction: 67% of patients say that having a Tempur-Pedic Medical mattress on their bed shows that the facility really cares.
Better Than Foam, Better Than Air
Mattresses made with TEMPUR material lower the incidence of pressure sores more effectively than any standard foam mattress. Our mattresses provide effective wound care treatment equal to or better than static air mattresses or properly adjusted low air loss mattresses.
Tempur-Pedic Mattresses are clinically proven to:
- Lower incidence rates of significant pressure ulcers to less than 1%
- Reduce specialty bed rentals used for wound care treatment 50% to 75%
The following statement was developed by the National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel, an independent not-for-profit professional organization dedicated to advancing the scientific knowledge base on the prevention and management of pressure ulcers:
Terms and Definitions of Support Surfaces
Historically, support surfaces were categorized into three types. While the terms “static” and “dynamic” were seemingly distinct, there was and is a lot of variability in each group with blurring of the meaning of the terms. Older terms “pressure reduction” and “pressure relief” have also been used to distinguish the degree of pressure redistribution provided by any surface. It is recognized that the word “pressure” comes from physics and describes a force over an area. In the pressure ulcer community, we have interchanged the word “force” in the physics language to mean load or weight on a bony prominence. Therefore, on gravity-based earth, we cannot be weightless (or completely pressure free) and true pressure relief cannot and does not exist. Attempts to reduce pressure on a bony prominence must then be directed at the other part of the equation—-“area”. Either the contact area of the skin can be increased, thus spreading weight more evenly, or the contact from some areas can be temporarily remove or shifted to other areas. In the first case, immersion and envelopment are the important methods used to increase the contact area of the skin. In the second, the change in contact pressure over time is a key consideration. So the term pressure redistribution is put forth as a more accurate term to describe what is accomplished by both of these approaches.
This set of definitions is provided in an attempt to redefine commonly used and confused terms and have been developed to describe the scientific terms used in the manufacturing of support surfaces and their components and characteristics prior to the placement of a patient on any of them.
It is important to begin by defining “support surface” as: A specialized device for pressure redistribution designed for management of tissue loads, micro-climate, and/or other therapeutic functions (i.e., any mattresses, integrated bed system, mattress replacement, mattress overlay or seat cushion, or seat cushion overlay).
As mentioned in the National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel statement, the first step in redistributing pressure is immersion. As the body sinks into the support surface the area of skin contact increases. The greater the area of contact, the lower the pressure and the better the wound care treatment. For example, if we were to take a 10 pound ball and rest it on a surface that allowed total surface contact of one square inch, the pressure load would be 10 PSI, or 517.15 mmHg. If we placed the same 10 pound ball on a surface that distributed weight over two square inches, the pressure load would be 5 PSI, or 258.57 mmHg.
The other factor is envelopment. Where immersion seeks to redistribute pressure from one area to another, envelopment is the micro-conformation of the support surface with the body. In essence, envelopment governs pressure equalization and is key to wound care treatment.
Wound care clinicians often think of mattress systems as being either foam or non powered air. In fact, there is a category for surfaces for wound care in between. The leader in this middle category of wound care product is Tempur-Pedic.
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