Wound Bed Preparation

Another week has passed, and this week we turn to sharp debridement in our brief series on the different techniques available for debriding wounds. What is Sharp Debridement? Sharp debridement refers to the use of forceps, scissors, or a scalpel to remove devitalized tissue, debris or other foreign materials from a wound bed.(1–3) After surgical…

Continuing our review of techniques used for wound debridement, this week we take a brief look at mechanical debridement. What is Mechanical Debridement? As its name suggests, mechanical debridement requires the use of a certain amount of force to remove devitalized tissue, as well as debris and other foreign material, from a wound bed. (1–3)…

Wound Debridement Techniques This week, in a continuation of our series on wound debridement techniques, we turn our attention to enzymatic debridement. Like autolytic debridement which we covered last week, enzymatic debridement relies on the use of enzymes to remove devitalized tissue.(1–3) However, in this case the enzymes are supplied externally (exogenously) rather than internally…

Welcome to the second in the series of articles on debridement in wound management. Last week, we kicked off this topic with a general overview of debridement and its role in wound management. Over the coming weeks, we will review each of the major techniques used for debridement, beginning this week with autolytic debridement. Works…

Until relatively recently, the presence of necrotic tissue such as a scab or eschar was considered a natural part of the healing process.1 It is now known that necrotic tissue has a detrimental effect on wound healing, slowing or even stopping the cascade of events that lead to eventual wound closure. Wound debridement is therefore…

The introduction of antibiotics during the last century has been one of the single most important innovations in the field of wound management. Wounds that would previously have presented a life threatening risk to patients can now routinely be resolved with the use of an appropriate antibiotic preparation. Antibiotics & Resistant Bacteria However, as is…

As described last week, the use of antibiotics in the management of wounds generally falls into two categories: treatment of infected wounds and prophylaxis in vulnerable wounds. This week, we will briefly consider the use of antibiotics to treat wounds that already show signs of colonization or infection. It is thought that approximately one in…

Antibiotics are commonly used in infected and critically colonized wounds to eradicate the infection and allow the wound to follow the normal physiological healing pathway. However, although prophylactic antibiotics are not recommended due to the risk of building host resistance, antibiotics also have an important role in preventing infection in the specific case of surgical…

Antibiotics have a vital role in wound management, both in the treatment and prophylaxis of infection. Depending on the circumstances, antibiotics may be administered systematically, topically, or via a combination of both routes.(1,2) Administering antibiotics topically generally allows a lower dose to be used, as the active component comes into direct contact with the microorganism…

This week marks the end of our short series looking at different aspects of biofilms and their impact on wound healing. Although biofilms, synergistic colonies of microbes, have been a recognized phenomenon for decades, we still have no definitive effective strategy to combat them. Challenges with Biofilms The major difficulty in dealing with biofilms is…