BACKGROUND
Background: Pressure injuries are a common complication after a spinal cord injury. Long-term multidisciplinary follow-up is difficult after such patients have been discharged. Telemedicine promises to provide convenient and effective support for the prevention and treatment of pressure injuries, but previous attempts to demonstrate that have produced inconsistent results.
OBJECTIVE
Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of telemedicine in preventing and treating pressure injuries among community-dwelling spinal cord injury survivors.
METHODS
Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis of previous research published in Chinese or English was performed. Ten databases were searched for research reports published prior to September 30, 2021. Two researchers independently coded the 35 reports identified. Their results were described in terms of relative risk and weighted mean difference and 95% confidence intervals were computed.
RESULTS
Results: The 35 studies comprised 25 randomized and controlled trials and 10 quasi-experimental studies involving 3131 discharged spinal cord injury patients. The meta-analysis showed that telemedicine can significantly reduce the incidence of pressure injury, promote faster healing and yield lower scores on the pressure ulcer scale of healing. Cumulative ranking estimates showed that combining telemedicine with more conventional interventions was the most effective approach.
CONCLUSIONS
Conclusions: The current evidence shows that telemedicine is a feasible form of intervention for preventing pressure sores among spinal cord injury survivors. It can decrease the incidence and severity of pressure sores and accelerate their healing without imposing a serious economic burden. It is best used in tandem with other, more conventional interventions.
CLINICALTRIAL
It was registered in PROSPERO database (CRD42020194061).