Pressure care

Symptoms

What is a pressure sore? When people are sick, old or aren’t able to move their bodies well, they can develop pressure sores. Untreated, pressure sores can make people extremely unwell, and in some cases, can even lead to death.

A pressure sore is not like a cut or a scratch. A cut or scratch happens when something breaks your skin from the outside of your body. For example, an accidental cut from a knife or a paper cut. A pressure sore is different as it develops from the inside of the body, starting from the bone and moving out towards the skin. A sore like this happens when your muscle is squashed between a bone inside your body and what you are sitting or lying on – for example the ground, a chair or a bed. This happens because the bone and the ground put pressure on the muscle and stop blood from getting to that area, causing it to die. This doesn’t normally happen to someone with full use of their body, as they can move easily and will move if they are uncomfortable. Unfortunately, by the time you can see the sore, a lot of muscle has already died.