How do physical therapists help people with spinal cord injuries prevent pressure sores? - Laura Wehrli, PT

Physical therapists will assist the patient in learning their functional mobility skills—so bed mobility, transfers—in a way that prevents a lot of shearing, a lot of damage that can happen to tissues, say on the sitting surfaces and what is contacting the transfer board, or the bed, or the chair during the transfers. We also look at someone’s seating and positioning, to their posture in the wheelchair, to make sure that they are evenly distributing pressure across those weight-bearing surfaces too—like the ischials or the buttocks, the thighs, the hips and the sacrum, making sure we’re not taking additional pressure in those areas. And overall, just prevention of damage to the tissues that are not sensate after a spinal cord injury.