Caring for Pressure Injuries at Home

Key findings used in wiki

• A pressure injury is skin/tissue damage from sustained or intense pressure (often over bony areas — heels, tailbone, hips, elbows, ears) that cuts off blood flow to compressed tissue; shear force can cause or worsen it.
• Key risk factors a caregiver can watch for: reduced ability to feel discomfort (e.g., diabetes, paralysis, some medications), reduced ability to move or reposition independently, reduced ability to communicate discomfort (dementia, some medications), and skin that stays wet (urine, stool, sweat) or is very dry.
• Onset can be fast: visible redness or discoloration over a bony area can develop in minutes to hours in someone who spends most of their time in bed or a chair.
• Early warning signs: a red/warm/tender area of unbroken skin that does not fade when pressure is removed (may blister), or a purple/maroon warm tender area — used as the caregiver-facing "call a nurse" trigger, not as instruction to treat.
• Explicit caution: do not rub a reddened area — doing so can cause more damage. This source is used only to support "know what to watch for and escalate," not step-by-step wound treatment, which stays with a clinician.