Lighting the way in chronic wound management -- a pilot study using blue light photobiomodulatione...Wounds Australia Conference, 14-17 September 2022, Sydney, Australia

Objectives: - Internationally, chronic wounds are a serious medical concern that have a significant financial impact on healthcare and a significant impact on patients' quality of life (1). The chronic wound is challenged by persisting inflammation that prevents the wound from progressing to normal wound healing. Blue Light is known to reduce signs of inflammation, reduces wound associated pain and produces faster tissue regeneration than standard wound care via photobiomodualtion (PBM). (2-4). This pilot study (N=10 patients) aimed to explore the use of a blue light emitting device (400-430nm) on chronic non healing wounds and whether there were any alterations in wound metrics and patient reported pain. Methods: All enrolled patients with a wound of chronicity greater than 8 weeks meeting the inclusion criteria were treated with the device for 60-seconds per 20cm2 (120mW/cm2) once weekly following standard care protocols in the outpatient setting for up to 10 weeks. Results: The retrospective analysis of the data found will be presented in this paper with patient cases, super-user information and will provide trends on wound characteristics. At the time of submission and with Covid-19 surge demands Results: are in data collection phase. Conclusions: At the time of submission 2 patients had completed the treatment period showcasing encouraging improvements in wound bed tissue, exudate, and wound size reduction along with wound pain score. Additional patient observations will be included as the pilot study progresses, possibly preceding a larger clinical trial.

Managing chronic wounds in the community: should we be promoting self-care?

Annemarie Brown considers patient factors affecting the appropriateness of self-care for chronic wounds.

Conference Report: LINK for Wound Healing Congress 2021

The third LINK for Wound Healing Congress, powered by HARTMANN in partnership with Wounds International, took place in a virtual format on October 14-15, 2021. The aim was to deliver an informative educational experience and offer attendees the opportunity to learn about recent developments in wound management and discuss clinical best practice.