[Objective]We report a case of electrical stimulation on pressure ulcers in the sacral region.
[Case]The patient was an 83-year-old female. She had received rehabilitation after a brain hemorrhage. A pressure ulcer was confirmed in her sacral region. Although medication treatment was used for 2 months, the pressure ulcer did not improve. Therefore, electrical stimulation was used with medication treatment.
[Method]Electrical stimulation with a bipolar pulse wave was used on the patient during five weeks. The frequency was 100 Hz, and the time of stimulation was 40 min. The strength of electrical stimulation was in a range of feeling electricity. An evaluation of the pressure ulcer in the sacral region was performed with evaluation of DESIGN (Japanese Society of Pressure Ulcers) by a nurse for 2 weeks.
[Results]Although the patient received only medication treatment during 2 months from the time the pressure ulcer was confirmed, the score of DESIGN aggravated from 4 points to 5 points. However, after that, the patient received electrical stimulation with medication. As the result, the score of DESIGN improved from 5 points to 0 points. There were 7 electrical stimulations.
[Discussion]We applied electrical stimulation to the pressure ulcer of the patient who was not improved with only medication therapy. The result was that the pressure ulcer improved dramatically. It is suggested that electrical stimulation was effective on the pressure ulcer. Furthermore, it was considered that the improvement of the pressure ulcer with electrical stimulation was related to the improvement of skin blood flow.