• Posted December 10, 2024

Bed Sores Can Slow Neurological Recovery After Spinal Cord Injury

Bed sores can be more than debilitating and painful. Now a new study shows they can also dramatically impact a person’s recovery from a spinal cord injury.

“Our study found that patients with pressure ulcers [bed sores] regained significantly less motor function through one year after injury,” said researcher Dr. Jan Schwab, chair of neuroscience at Ohio State University.

“In addition, their recovery of ‘independence in activities of daily living’ was significantly restricted compared to other patients,” Schwab added in a university news release.

For the study, researchers tracked the progress of nearly 1,300 patients with spinal cord injuries, of whom 46% developed bed sores.

The patients were treated at 20 different hospitals around the country between 1996 to 2006, and their health tracked until 2016.

“Pressure ulcers often develop in patients with spinal cord injury starting during the early hospitalization, affecting roughly half of the patients,” Schwab said.

Researchers suspected that these ulcers could interfere with recovery, given that infections hamper wound healing in other injuries and illnesses.

“We wondered whether just the presence of another inflammatory lesion in the body such as a pressure ulcer, in addition to the spinal cord injury lesion itself, is already sufficient to distract wound healing,” Schwab said.

The findings, published Dec. 10 in JAMA Network Open, showed that patients with bed sores scored lower on tests of motor ability by one year after their injury.

“Patients who develop pressure ulcers face worse long-term disability and increased risk of death,” said researcher Dr. Marcel Kopp, a clinical scientist of experimental neurology with Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin in Germany. 

Researchers believe that these bed sores cause inflammation that interferes with healing of the spinal cord injury. These sores also contain bacteria that can spread throughout the body, further hampering recovery.

The results show that spinal cord patients will fare best if they’re treated at neurological rehabilitation centers that have specialized plans and methods in place to prevent bed sores, researchers said.

“We believe that preventing pressure ulcers from developing can help protect these patients and lead to improved medical care,” Kopp said.

More information

The National Institutes of Health has more on spinal cord injury.

SOURCE: Ohio State University, news release, Dec. 6, 2024