Abstract
Nutritional parameters obtained at hospital admission were studied to determine whether they would predict which surgical patients would develop pressure ulcers during a period of up to three weeks of hospitalization. Nutrition parameters were serum albumin, total protein, lymphocyte count, mid-arm muscle circumference, triceps skin fold, and weight change. Lymphocyte count was significant (p = 0.007, adjusted r2 = 0.019) in predicting the development of a pressure ulcer during hospitalization. Because lymphocyte count accounted for less than 2% of the variance, it is not a clinically significant predictor. When nonnutritional pressure ulcer risk factors were controlled for in the regression, no nutritional factors were predictive of ulcer development. (Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition 11:298-301, 1987)

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