You searched for When - Page 4 of 23

Revealing Advanced Wound Care Market Growth Factors

April 6, 2017February 25, 2020 Wound Care Advisor

At a time when governments are under pressure to reduce healthcare costs, the global advanced wound care market is growing, driven by an aging population and rising incidences of chronic wounds.

Advanced wound care products are typically used to manage complex wounds, including burns, chronic wounds and complex trauma and surgical wounds. Chronic and complex wounds represent one of the predominant challenges to global healthcare systems because they are hard to heal and expensive to treat. (more…)

Nutritional Supplements

March 25, 2017February 25, 2020 Wound Care Advisor

BY: NANCY MORGAN, RN, BSN, MBA, WOCN, WCC, CWCMS, DWC
Wound healing and nutrition go hand in hand. Without adequate fluids, calories, and protein, wound healing can be delayed.

Protein is extremely important in wound healing. Patients with wounds require almost double the protein intake (1.2 to 1.5 g/kg/day) of those without wounds. All stages of wound healing require adequate protein. The basis of the human body structure, protein is responsible for making enzymes involved in wound healing, cell multiplication, and collagen and connective-tissue building. (more…)

Support surfaces

March 25, 2017February 25, 2020 Wound Care Advisor

BY: NANCY MORGAN, RN, BSN, MBA, WOCN, WCC, CWCMS, DWC
Support surfaces are geared for managing our patients’ tissue load and redistributing it to prevent skin breakdown. There are three types of pressure redistribution mattresses available, classified as group 1, group 2, and group 3. Group 1 mattresses lack a power source and maintain a constant state of inflation. They include foam mattresses, gel mattresses, and air mattresses. Group 2 support surfaces, such as powered, low-air-loss, and alternating pressure mattresses use inflation and deflation to spread the tissue load over a large surface area. Group 3 mattresses include the air-fluidized mattress, a special type of powered mattress that provides the highest-pressure redistribution via a fluid-like medium created by forcing air through beads, as characterized by immersion and envelopment. (more…)

Pressure ulcer staging

March 25, 2017February 25, 2020 Wound Care Advisor

By Nancy Morgan, RN, BSN, MBA, WOCN, WCC, CWCMS, DWC
Staging pressure ulcers can get tricky, especially when we’re dealing with a suspected deep-tissue injury (SDTI). The National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel defines an SDTI as a “purple or maroon localized area of discolored intact skin or blood-filled blister due to damage of underlying soft tissue from pressure and/or shear. The area may be preceded by tissue that is painful, firm, mushy, boggy, warmer, or cooler as compared to adjacent tissue… Deep tissue injury may be difficult to detect in individuals with dark skin tones. Evolution may include a thin blister over a dark wound bed. The wound may further evolve and become covered by thin eschar. Evolution may be rapid, exposing additional layers of tissue even with optimal treatment.” (more…)

Exudate amounts

March 25, 2017February 25, 2020 Wound Care Advisor

BY: NANCY MORGAN, RN, BSN, MBA, WOCN, WCC, CWCMS, DWC
We’ve talked about types of exudate (drainage). Now let’s consider the amount of exudate in wounds, which is a key part of our assessment.

No exudate present: The wound is too dry.
Scant amount of exudate present: The wound is moist, even though no measurable amount of exudate appears on the dressing.
Small or minimal amount of exudate on the dressing: Exudate covers less than 25% of the bandage. (more…)

How are you differentiating the “big three”?

March 25, 2017February 25, 2020 Wound Care Advisor

BY: NANCY MORGAN, RN, BSN, MBA, WOCN, WCC, CWCMS, DWC
Lower extremity ulcers are often referred as the “big three”—arterial ulcers, venous ulcers, and diabetic foot ulcers. Are you able to properly identify them based on their characteristics? Sometimes, it’s a challenge to differentiate them.

Arterial ulcers tend occur the tips of toes, over phalangeal heads, around the lateral malleolus, on the middle portion of the tibia, and on areas subject to trauma. These ulcers are deep, pale, and often necrotic, with minimal granulation tissue. Surrounding skin commonly is pale, cool, thin, and hairless; toenails tend to be thick. Arterial ulcers tend to be dry with minimal drainage, and often are associated with significant pain. The patient usually has diminished or absent pulses. (more…)

Measuring wounds

March 25, 2017February 25, 2020 Wound Care Advisor

BY: NANCY MORGAN, RN, BSN, MBA, WOCN, WCC, CWCMS, DWC
An essential part of weekly wound assessment is measuring the wound. It’s vitally important to use a consistent technique every time you measure. The most common type of measurement is linear measurement, also known as the “clock” method. In this technique, you measure the longest length, greatest width, and greatest depth of the wound, using the body as the face of an imaginary clock. Document the longest length using the face of the clock over the wound bed, and then measure the greatest width. On the feet, the heels are always at 12 o’clock and the toes are always 6 o’clock. Document all measurements in centimeters, as L x W x D. Remember—sometimes length is smaller than width. (more…)

ABIs: Do you or don’t you?

March 25, 2017February 25, 2020 Wound Care Advisor

BY: NANCY MORGAN, RN, BSN, MBA, WOCN, WCC, CWCMS, DWC
You’ve identified your patient’s lower extremity ulcer as a venous ulcer. It has irregular edges, a ruddy wound base, and a moderate amount of drainage. The patient’s bilateral lower extremities are edematous. As a wound care clinician, you know sustained graduated compression is key to healing stasis ulcers and preventing their recurrence. (more…)

Think a Patient Has Rights? They Left.

March 25, 2017February 25, 2020 Wound Care Advisor

by Dr. Michael Miller

There are few absolutes in my universe. I know that my youngest daughter will gleefully and with full malice (but humorously presented) find something to torment me about every time I see her; referrals from family practice docs arrive well marinated in multiple antibiotics with nary a diagnosis in sight (save for the ubiquitous “infection”); and that regardless of what I recommend, offer, beg, plead, or cajole, that the patient has the complete and total power to make their decisions regarding their care and who provides it. Unless they are deemed by multiple authorities to be incapable of making a decision, until the appropriate paperwork or an emergency situation exists mandating immediate lifesaving action, the ball bounces squarely in their court…or so I thought. (more…)

Jim Nabors Would Just Cry

March 25, 2017February 25, 2020 Wound Care Advisor

by Dr. Michael Miller

For those of you not as familiar with the Hoosier State as you should be, I used to think it was essentially paradise. Jim Nabors of Gomer Pyle fame is our ubiquitous, tuneful icon with his always well-received “Back Home in Indiana” as a mantra to that source of pride. Our former Governor “My Man” Mitch Daniels was a genius who, using a combination of intelligence, common sense and the persuasive powers of a midwest Svengali, created an economic model that our neighbors can only lust after. Our medicolegal climate is among the best in the US and well it should be. However, while there are some extraordinary caregivers and facilities here, a recent US News and World Report curiously showed that almost none of our hospitals made their “Best of” lists in any category. That is not to say there is bad care but to not have a single facility in an entire state even achieve an honorable mention gives one pause to reflect. The State newspapers were notoriously quiet on this concerning fact despite their trumpeting of who does what well, when and where. (more…)

Hole-ier than Thou, Evidence Based Regardless of the Evidence

March 25, 2017February 25, 2020 Wound Care Advisor

by Dr. Michael Miller

There are certain phrases that make the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Someone telling me that they are a good Jew, a good Christian, a good Muslim or the ultimate in self serving lies, “I ONLY practice EVIDENCE BASED MEDICINE”. People who are what they claim they are do not need to announce it. A short conversation, watching them work, others opinions about them all answer the question before it is asked. Like the RN who asked for a recent presentation on the true science behind NPWT (no, you don’t really understand it). She made sure to tell me not only that she practiced only EVIDENCE BASED MEDICINE but then gave me several examples which incidentally had absolutely no scientific evidence (save for articles from lots of dabblers doing lots of crazy things to people and writing about them). I am now awaiting her response as she may have to realize that her version of EVIDENCE BASED is no more real than Kim Kardashian’s celebrity. (more…)

Condemning Patients to a Leap of Faith

March 25, 2017February 25, 2020 Wound Care Advisor

by Dr. Michael Miller

I have several letters after my name. The two that say “DO” indicate that I have the training of a physician and the requisite education and responsibilities that uphold those letters. They should mean to patients that my ultimate goal is to offer (and provide when the fates allow) the entire spectrum of medical care referable to what I am good at and what they came to seek solace for. Nothing less and if I keep my ego in check, certainly nothing more. Patients run the gamut of their perception of the medical field. But like the old sales nemesis called “Bait and Switch”, what is offered on the sign all too often does not truly match what is seen on the shelves. Arrogant people are that way because they are good at what they do and not afraid to tell others. As a child, we are told to let others brag about us but failing to let people know what we can and can’t do is integral to our patients’ survival and our success. The problem is that the glitz and glamour of being a healer all too often clouds our success. Some time ago, I blogged about the pseudo-utilitarianism of all those so-called “Wound Certification” Exams. At first blush, these seem to be the key to health, wealth, omniscience and outcomes equaled only by those wound care management companies. (more…)

« 1 2 3 4 5 6 … 23 »