Across acute care settings, noninvasive ventilation is commonly implemented to attenuate the effects of respiratory insufficiency or failure. Despite the varied benefits of noninvasive ventilation, an untoward consequence of this therapy is the genesis of device-related facial pressure ulcers.
It is estimated that nearly one-third of patients who require noninvasive ventilation develop a facial pressure ulcer due to a variety of factors associated with the patient’s condition and the failure to properly apply noninvasive ventilation masks onto the patient’s face. Although recommendations for the prevention of device-related pressure ulcers have been published, there is limited evidence on the incidence of device-related pressure ulcers between the 2 most common types of masks to deliver noninvasive ventilation: full-face and nasal-oral masks.
In this study, the authors sought to understand if there were differences in pressure injury incidence and severity, as well as perceived comfort and adherence times between critically ill patients who...