Marquette Elder's Advisor Volume 2 Article 7 Issue 2 Fall The rP essure Sore Case: A Medical Perspective Jeffrey M. Levine Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/elders Part of the Elder Law Commons Repository Citation Levine, Jeffrey M. (2000) "The rP essure Sore Case: A Medical Perspective," Marquette Elder's Advisor: Vol. 2: Iss. 2, Article 7. Available at: http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/elders/vol2/iss2/7 This Featured Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Marquette Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Marquette Elder's Advisor by an authorized administrator of Marquette Law Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. The Pressure Sore Case: A Medical Perspective Although bedsores sometimes result dents.7 As a result, malpractice litigation related to pressure sores exploded in the 1990s.1 from inadequate care, not all cases Clinical Practice Guidelines involving pressure ulcers merit a law- Define Pressure Sores suit. This article adopts a medical per- Clinical practice guidelines define a pressure ulcer as "[a]ny skin lesion, usually over a bony promi- spective in its consideration of the pres- nence, caused by unrelieved pressure resulting in damage of underlying tissue." 9 The incidence of sure sore case, particularlywhen evalu- pressure ulcers in nursing homes is 0.20 to 0.56 per 1,000 resident-days, which may increase to 14 per ating deviation from the standard of 1,000 resident-days among those at high risk.' ° Commonly affected sites, comprising approximate- care.