Holistic Benefits of Dolphin Therapy

The holistic benefits of Dolphin Therapy (a unique therapeutic surface which simulates a fluid environment) are sometimes overlooked when pressure area care is the main focus. However, those other key benefits, when added to outstanding pressure area care outcomes, demonstrate how powerful it is in improving quality-of-life for patients.

Sam Sanders is a Clinical Account Manager at Medstrom with many years’ experience working in palliative and end-of-life care as a Clinical Nurse Specialist. Below are her thoughts on the Dolphin Therapy surface and its combined benefits:

“I’ve now observed many patients on Dolphin Therapy, with excellent results for both prevention and treatment of pressure ulcers. But what I’ve also found – which I confess I wasn’t expecting – is that almost every patient nursed on Dolphin experiences a reduction in pain.

“For some patients, the pain reduction is so significant that they can drastically reduce analgesia. And in some cases, the need for opioid analgesia is cut down or even eliminated. This helps to lessen unwanted side effects and gives quality time back to the patient and their loved ones.

“You also find that when pain is reduced, other things naturally improve – comfort, sleep, and adherence to care for example.

“Although I’ve seen this first hand, don’t just take my word for it. We have thousands of patient outcomes now which show outstanding results for pressure area care and all these other areas.

“In the video below, I recall one particular patient who experienced significant pain reduction within 24 hours of using Dolphin Therapy.”

Dolphin Therapy – Much More than Pressure Area Care

Dolphin Therapy is a reactive therapy system that creates a simulated fluid environment, enabling full immersion and envelopment. This significantly reduces pressure, shear and tissue deformation. By simulating immersion into a fluid, Dolphin ensures the retention of normal soft tissue symmetry, so vascular occlusion is minimised. This restores near to normal blood flow, preventing tissue ischemia, resulting in outstanding clinical outcomes for the most complex and comprised patients:

Patients with existing skin damage:

98% of patients had skin damage that either healed, improved or remained static

Prevention patients:

99% effective in the prevention of skin damage

Additional outcomes include:

>99% improvement in pain management
>99% improvement in comfort
>99% improvement in sleep
98% of patients who had previously been nursed on a dynamic surface were able to be repositioned less frequently
96% of patients had improved adherence to care

More Evidence

The links below will take you to some highly impactful anonymised case studies for palliative and end-of-life patients. These demonstrate the holistic benefits of Dolphin Therapy through powerful patient stories.

Patient M: Pain and opioid requirement reduction

Barbara: Reduced anxiety and increased comfort

Albert: Reduced pain and improved comfort