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Wound Bed Preparation and Negative Pressure Wound Therapy

Beth Hawkins Bradley's picture
Submitted by Beth Hawkins Bradley on May 27th, 2012
Keywords: 
Debridement, Wound Dressings, Negative Pressure Wound Therapy, Wound Bed Preparation

By Beth Hawkins Bradley RN, MN, CWOCN

Negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) has become a mainstay in wound management. During the advent years of its use, NPWT was only used to treat large, difficult wounds. Now it is a standard treatment for a wide range of wounds. As a clinician interested in wound management, you are likely using this therapy frequently. But how knowledgeable are you about important aspects of NPWT? The author’s hope is that, as you read these NPWT-focused articles, you will become interested in filling in any “knowledge gaps” that you identify.

Blog Category: 
Negative Pressure Wound Therapy

Maggot Debridement Therapy in Palliative Care: Necrotic Tumor

Ron Sherman's picture
Submitted by Ron Sherman on May 18th, 2012
Keywords: 
Biotherapy, Debridement, Maggot Debridement Therapy, Necrotic Wounds, Palliative Care

By Ron Sherman MD, MSC, DTM&H

This week I was asked about using maggot therapy for treating a tumor that eroded through the skin, causing a foul-smelling, necrotic draining wound. This is not an uncommon question, and it touches upon several important elements of biotherapy, as well as palliative wound care in general. This is also a timely subject because of the upcoming (third) Annual Palliative Wound Care Conference.

Blog Category: 
Palliative Wound Care, Wound Bed Preparation

Mitigating Lawsuits: The Role of Communication in Palliative Wound Care

Karen Zulkowski's picture
Submitted by Karen Zulkowski on May 14th, 2012
Keywords: 
Legal Issues, Palliative Care

By Karen Zulkowski DNS, RN, CWS

Last month I talked about the issues that occurred during my husband’s knee surgery. This month I want to bring the focus back to lawsuits and how they arise. What are the implications for the patient and family, and how does palliative wound care fit in?

Blog Category: 
Palliative Wound Care

What is Palliative Wound Care?

Aletha Tippett MD's picture
Submitted by Aletha Tippett MD on May 6th, 2012
Keywords: 
Palliative Care, Support Surfaces

By Aletha Tippett MD

Palliative wound care is a relatively new field targeting wound treatment for patients at the end of life, or patients with terminal disease or inability to tolerate standard care. The traditional goal of wound care is to heal or prepare for surgical closure, but techniques and procedures used to “heal” a wound can be painful or uncomfortable and very costly, plus patients who qualify for palliative care may not live long enough to heal a wound.

Blog Category: 
Palliative Wound Care

Palliative Care Challenges: Offering Supportive Nutritional Care at End of Life

Mary Ellen Posthauer's picture
Submitted by Mary Ellen Posthauer on May 1st, 2012
Keywords: 
Nutritional Assessment, Palliative Care, Nutritional Supplements

By Mary Ellen Posthauer RDN, CD, LD, FAND

Food is a major part of our lives with strong emotional and symbolic implications that encompasses nurturing, cultural, religion, tradition and social values. Nutrition and hydration has an effective role in healing wounds, but cannot prevent an individual with co-morbid conditions at the end of life from suffering or imminent death. This concept is often difficult to explain to the individual and especially to the caregivers who view nutrition and hydration as essential for life.

Blog Category: 
Palliative Wound Care

Is it Possible to Control Wound Care Costs AND Provide Excellent Patient Care?

Sue Hull's picture
Submitted by Sue Hull on May 1st, 2012
Keywords: 
Health Care Economics, Wound Dressings, Product Selection

Part 1 in a series examining the reduction of facility costs and the continuation of quality care

By Sue Hull MSN, RN, CWOCN

Remember W. Edwards Deming? We all learned about him in business management, right? He taught and demonstrated that systematic approaches were necessary to improve quality and control costs. Maybe I’m the only one, but I couldn’t really grasp how that principle could be applied to wound care.

Blog Category: 
Reimbursement

Wound Care in Crisis – “How Can You Juggle Patient Care When You Have No Balls?”

Michael Miller's picture
Submitted by Michael Miller on April 27th, 2012

By Michael Miller DO, FACOS, FAPWCA

RAMBLINGS OF AN ITINERANT WOUND CARE GUY, PT. 10

A house call to a delightful 78-year-old lady revealed a history of a hip prosthesis placed three years earlier that unfortunately had become infected. When the first surgeon could not be found (he had moved out of state just in time), his associate opened the hip, carefully lavaged out the “Root Beer Float” material (per the family, an interesting description if I ever heard one), and then closed the hip primarily.

Of Best Laid Plans: The Unpredictable Effects of Knee Surgery on a Wound Care Blog

Karen Zulkowski's picture
Submitted by Karen Zulkowski on April 17th, 2012

By Karen Zulkowski DNS, RN, CWS

The past few months I have written about legal cases and palliative care. My plan was to combine them for March. However, my husband had a partial knee replacement at the end of February and I wanted to write about that. My apologies for no March column.

Blog Category: 
Atypical and Complex Wounds

Does Gauze Have Cause? – Making a Case for Gauze Wound Dressings

Aletha Tippett MD's picture
Submitted by Aletha Tippett MD on April 9th, 2012
Keywords: 
Wound Dressings, Palliative Care

By Aletha Tippett MD

With a theme this month of dressings, I think it is time to give gauze its rightful due. There are a number of wound care providers who would say that “gauze has no cause”. Of course, this is said because of the understanding that moist gauze dries out when on a wound, leading to “wet to dry”, which is a major no-no according to CMS. This wet-to-dry results in debridement of viable tissue. It is also because of the belief and practice that a gauze dressing needs to be changed daily, and with all the cost-consciousness, this makes it more expensive than a once-a-week higher end dressing. However, in real life, how often does a once-weekly dressing actually last the full week, especially on a sacral or buttock wound?

Blog Category: 
Dressings

A Continuum of Choice: Techniques in Wound Care Dressing Selection

Laurie Swezey's picture
Submitted by Laurie Swezey on April 3rd, 2012
Keywords: 
Wound Dressings, Product Selection

By Laurie Swezey RN, BSN, CWOCN, CWS, FACCWS

There are more than 3,000 types of wound dressings available on the market today, and more are being launched every day. Although there are a number of protocols and algorithms available to help with the selection of wound dressings,1,2 and individual facilities are likely to have their own dressings of choice, the decision can still seem overwhelming. Even the most seasoned wound care practitioner can find it difficult to assess the advantages and disadvantages of each dressing available and to make the appropriate choice for a particular patient. Rather than consider each dressing in isolation, a useful technique can be to mentally place each type of dressing on a continuum of occlusion.3

Blog Category: 
Dressings

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