Meeting report: managing peristomal skin complications

On 8 February 2019, the British Journal of Nursing (BJN) and Medicareplus International held a round-table discussion in Birmingham, UK, on how to prevent, manage and treat peristomal skin complications. The expert panel included clinical nurse specialists in stoma care (four participants); a bladder, bowel and stoma-care clinical nurse specialist; a lead colorectal nurse; a lead stoma care nurse; a consultant nurse in pouch and stoma care; and an expert in gastrointestinal nurse education—all nine of them based in England, UK.

The objectives of this meeting were to:

The meeting also aimed to identify the typical types of peristomal skin complications in clinical practice, particularly in association with moisture; understand what drives decision-making around the products used for peristomal skin complications; and find out if there are any particular features looked for when choosing a skin protectant.

The chair opened the discussion by inviting the panel members to estimate how often they saw peristomal skin-related complications in their daily practice. One delegate mentioned that up to 80% of patients will see skin complications after stoma formation (Colwell et al, 2017). One delegate estimated that, from a cohort of 10 patients, half of them would present with skin damage. Apart from this, none of the attendees had robust data to illustrate the frequency of skin-related complications in practice, but they briefly mentioned the new guidelines (NHS Improvement, 2018) being put in place across NHS England to prevent and manage pressure ulcers, which tissue viability nurses (TVN) in some trusts are already sharing with stoma clinical nurse specialists.