Practice Accelerator

by the WoundSource Editors

by the WoundSource Editors

Pressure Injury/Ulcer Risk Management in Palliative Care and Hospice

Palliative care and hospice care are not the same, but they both share one goal. They both focus on a patient's physical, mental, social, and spiritual needs. Palliative care can begin at diagnosis and treatment or for patients at any stage of their illness. Patients may not want to receive aggressive treatment of non-healing wounds because of underlying diseases, pain, and/or cost.¹

by the WoundSource Editors

Calciphylaxis – A disorder—generally found in end stage renal disease but not limited to renal patients—with widespread calcification of small and medium-sized vessels that leads to occlusion, thrombosis, and tissue necrosis. Extreme cases can be life-threatening.

by the WoundSource Editors

by the WoundSource Editors

by the WoundSource Editors

Acute Wound: A wound that is following a predicted pattern of healing that should result in complete functional closure.

Chronic Wound: A wound that has failed to re-epithelialize after three months, usually because of failure to progress past the inflammatory phase of wound healing.

by the WoundSource Editors

Surgical site infections (SSIs) account for 20% of total documented infections each year and cost approximately $34,000 per episode. SSIs are responsible for increased readmission rates, length of stay, reoperation, morbidity, and mortality, as well as increased overall health care costs.^1,2

by the WoundSource Editors

Surgical site infections (SSIs) are the most prevalent surgical wound complications, comprising approximately 15% of all health care–associated infections, with more than 500,000 reported yearly.¹ Preventing SSIs is perhaps the best way to prevent further surgical wound complications.

by the WoundSource Editors

Appropriate surgical wound and incision management in the post-operative time period is imperative to prevent complications, including surgical site infection and wound dehiscence. The tenets of modern wound management are applicable to primarily closed incisions, as well as to subacute and chronic wounds.

by the WoundSource Editors

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate approximately 30 million surgical procedures are performed annually in the United States.¹ Advances in technology have afforded patients options such as minimally invasive surgery, commonly known as laparoscopic or arthroscopic surgery, which tend to result in much smaller (1cm–2cm) incisions.