Did you know that slow-healing wounds can prevent you from taking part in your daily chores because they are very painful? Some wounds are not severe, but due to poor or inappropriate care, they worsen to chronic wounds resulting in severe complications like bone infection. That is why qualified and experienced specialists like Dr. Ashley Huddleston in Forth Worth take proactive steps to promote wound healing. Comprehensive care that includes advanced dressing, nutrition, and specialized treatment like hyperbaric oxygen therapy is used. Below is all you are required to know concerning wound care.
When do you need wound care?
Wounds that require professional care have developed an infection or are severe wounds. Similarly, you also require wound care for wounds that do not heal quickly. In most cases, you are said to have a chronic wound or a non-healing wound when it has not started healing for about two weeks or has failed to heal completely within six weeks. But if you develop an ulcer on your foot or lower leg, you shouldn’t wait to see if it will heal because ulcers rarely heal on their own. And with time, ulcers only worsen and develop complications.
What types of wounds require professional care?
Some wounds that require professional wound care are infected, venous leg ulcers, diabetic wounds, foot ulcers, pressure sores, arterial ulcers, or surgical wound complications. Non-healing wounds can take several months to heal. In this case, the longer the wound takes to heal, the more you risk having serious infections that can invade the surrounding bones and skin. Amputation can be done in very severe and chronic wounds.
What are the symptoms that indicate you need wound care?
The symptoms below indicate that your wound is not healing correctly or might have an infection. They are foul odor, swelling, redness, fever, thick and discolored discharge, pain that does not improve, drainage from the wound, blue or dark color around the wound’s edges, or red streaks or blotches spreading from the wound. Therefore if you develop any of the above symptoms, you must seek medical attention immediately.
What happens during wound care?
Generally, chronic wounds usually require intensive treatment that starts with a thorough initial assessment. The health care specialist begins by reviewing your medical history, carrying out a physical exam, and evaluating the depth and size of your wound. Diagnostic tests are also performed to help identify the underlying cause of your wound. It also looks for the existence of potential complications like bone infections. Additional studies performed are vascular studies, ultrasound, blood tests, diagnostic imaging tests like CT scan, MRI or x-ray, and trans-cutaneous oxygen testing.
Which treatment might you receive for wound care?
In most cases, advanced therapies are used to promote wound healing and stabilize your wound. Some essential therapies offered are wound debridement, compression therapy, infection management, negative pressure wound therapy, bio-engineered skin grafts, pressure off-loading, and hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
Non-healing wounds and slow healing wounds can expose you to infections of the surrounding tissues and bone. Therefore if you have any of the conditions mentioned earlier and require professional wound care, call or visit Wound Evaluation-Wound Care and Hyperbaric Medicine today and get started by booking your appointment online.