What is a pressure sore? - Kim Eberhardt Muir, MS

A skin sore is something that can really, really make a huge impact, negatively, in your life.  Once you have one, you’re always going to be susceptible to getting one.  It can keep you in bed for months on end.  It can also make you very de-conditioned, because the treatment for skin ulcers is to stay in bed, and that’s exactly what we don’t want you to do with a spinal cord injury.  So, one of the first things you learn is to inspect your skin, and that is any bony prominence, especially the ones you can’t feel.  So whether it be below the neck—that would include elbow, shoulder blades—or below the waist—which would include heels, hips, the bottom, and the knees—those are big targets for skin issues.  And especially the bottom, whether it be the sacral area or the tailbone ischium.  Why this is important again, with spinal cord injury it’s one of the biggest, biggest complications that you see, and it can cause a system-wide infection, basically your whole body can get an infection, and that can cause, you know, death.  So, it is something we really like to caution our families and patients about.