Medicine: Beds in Sheep's Clothing

• Share

Any hospital nurse worth her starch takes high pride in beds made with cotton sheets stretched tightly over a rubberized or plastic mattress cover, which is a tidy and sanitary practice-and one that can cause agonizing pain or even death from bedsores. Patients confined to bed in one position for long periods are almost certain to get blisters over the lower spine. Patients who develop ulcers, as sometimes happens among aged victims of broken hips, may die.

The cause of the trouble, explains Britain's Surgeon John Charnley, is either pressure that shuts off blood flow, or moist skin sticking to the bedsheet, which in turn sticks to the waterproof sheet beneath so that no moisture can escape. Dr. Charnley thought of trying a spongy sort of sheet made of nylon and polyvinyl chloride. But U.S. orthopedists had beaten him to the idea, with animal skins. Milwaukee's Dr. Frederick G. Gaenslen, copying an idea used by his orthopedist-father, uses close-cropped sheepskin.

"The air spaces in the wool allow the skin to dry, and ease the pressure on the spine," says Dr. Gaenslen. "I order a sheepskin for a patient the same as I'd order aspirin." A Buffalo surgeon uses deerskins, finds that they work well, and has no difficulty getting hunters in the neighborhood to donate them—a radio appeal once brought in hundreds. Two of the idea's biggest boosters are El Paso's Dr. Louis W. Breck and Dr. Saul Gonzalez, who have used sheepskins for thousands of patients. They have seen virtually no bed ulcers.

Dispensing with a nightshirt or sheet, the El Paso team insists that the patient's skin must lie directly on the cropped wool. Even in hot weather, this helps to keep the patient cool by letting air circulate. The sheepskin can be washed repeatedly, provided it is well rinsed. "It is remarkable," say Drs. Breck and Gonzalez, "that the method has not been adopted widely throughout the country."