by the WoundSource Editors
As the fourth of July rolls around, hospitals and clinics all over the country will begin to see an increase in burn incidents. According to the Consumer Product Safety Committee, 68% of the estimated total fireworks-related injuries in 2016 happened...
by Jeanne Cunningham, Founder of WoundSource
After seeing about 100 pictures of wounds, I was beginning to feel sick. The year was 1985 and there I was, a recent college graduate in my 20s, sitting in a cramped office at the Crozer Chester Medical Center in Chester, PA, watching...
by Miranda Henry, Editorial Director of WoundSource
Twenty years ago, WoundSource™ became the first-ever comprehensive wound care reference guide for clinicians. It contained just nine product categories and did not yet include such innovations as hand-held wound...
In celebrating the 20th anniversary of WoundSource, we would like to acknowledge the support of our readership. The WoundSource Reader Profile Series shares the stories behind our readers and how WoundSource currently impacts their wound care practices....
Martin D. Vera, LVN, CWS is the Coordinator of Wound Management at Patience Home Health Care in San Antonio, Texas. He has been working in the wound care field for nearly 20 years, helping countless patients, teaching wound care best practices, and improving standards at his care facility. His...
Fabiola Jimenez is a Wound Ostomy Continence Nurse and Adult Clinical Nurse Specialist at Detroit Medical Center Huron Valley Sinai Hospital, a small community hospital of 158 beds in eastern Michigan. She has been a nurse since 1988, when she entered the field after graduating from the...
by the WoundSource Editors
The stages of wound healing proceed in an organized way and follow four processes: hemostasis, inflammation, proliferation and maturation. Although the stages of wound healing are linear, wounds can progress backward or forward depending on internal and...
by the WoundSource Editors
Moist wound healing is the practice of keeping a wound in an optimally moist environment in order to promote faster healing. Research has shown that moist wound healing is three to five times quicker than the healing of wounds that are allowed to dry...
by the WoundSource Editors
Hydrocolloid dressings provide a moist and insulating healing environment which protects uninfected wounds while allowing the body's own enzymes to help heal wounds. These dressings are unique because they don't have to be changed as often as some other...
by Miranda Henry, WoundSource Managing Editor
There are opportunities for health care providers at all levels to become experts in the field of wound care. This multidisciplinary field is comprised of a wide range of health care professionals including nurses, dietitians,...
by the WoundSource Editors
With approximately 68,000 codes (nearly five times the number of codes as ICD-9), the ICD-10 system can seem daunting. In addition to an expansion in the number of codes, with flexibility for new code development, ICD-10 codes themselves are also longer...
by the WoundSource Editors
Health care professionals have a major responsibility for assuring patient safety and quality of care when making wound care product selections or recommending treatment options. This is particularly true for wound care.
One component in this...
by the WoundSource Editors
Litigation over hospital-acquired pressure ulcers represents a significant fraction of a medical malpractice attorney's caseload. The liability issues have shifted since October 1, 2008 when the Centers for Medicare and...
by the WoundSource Editors
Writing up a case report is an important professional activity in not only wound care, but in any other field as well. A case report records the details of the presentation of signs and symptoms, assessment, diagnosis, treatment and outcomes of a...
by the WoundSource Editors
A myriad of factors need to be addressed when evaluating a patient with a wound. A thorough patient history, including previous wounds, surgeries, hospitalizations, and past and existing conditions will help guide your clinical assessment, in addition...
by the WoundSource Editors
Over the course of a wound’s existence, several tissue types can be identified. In order to properly stage an ulcer and determine the best treatment option, it is important for the clinician to be able to determine the tissue type that is present. The...
by the WoundSource Editors
The term diabetic foot refers generally to the increased occurrence of complications in the feet of patients with diabetes mellitus. The most common foot problems related to diabetes are peripheral neuropathy leading to ulceration, vascular disease,...
by the WoundSource Editors
HBOT (Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy) has now been used for many years. Over the years we have seen HBOT used in treatment of many conditions such as various immune disorders, Lyme Disease,...
by the WoundSource Editors
Neuropathic ulcers form as a result of peripheral neuropathy, typically in diabetic patients. Local paresthesias, or...
by the WoundSource Editors
Psoriasis is a chronic, noncontagious skin disease resulting from an atypical autoimmune response which leads to accelerated skin growth and the formation of skin lesions. Psoriasis causes skin cells that typically...
by the WoundSource Editors
Lymphedema (alternate spelling: lymphoedema) is a condition marked by the retention of interstitial fluid (lymph) and the swelling (edema) of surrounding soft tissue...
by the WoundSource Editors
Generally speaking, a burn is an injury to the tissue of the body, typically the skin. Burns can vary in severity from mild to life-threatening. Most burns only affect the uppermost layers of skin, but depending on the depth of the burn, underlying...