Wound Care

ABSTRACT

Common chronic wounds encountered by Family Physicians in the home care setting include pressure ulcers, diabetic foot ulcers, venous ulcers and arterial ulcers. Wound care management starts with a comprehensive wound assessment to determine wound characteristics and identify risk factors for non-healing. This is followed by optimising the wound bed using TIME principles that emphasises judicious debridement, management of exudate, and resolution of bacterial imbalance. An appropriate wound dressing is then selected based on wound characteristics and dressing properties. Finally, it is important to remember that chronic wounds are part of a patient's multiple medical comorbidities, and interacts closely with the patient�s social circumstances and functional status.The underlying aetiology and patient risk factors need to be addressed to optimise wound healing