Wound care

The body is a miraculous agent of healing and restoration. But sometimes a wound just won't heal. Wound care management, says Community Hospital's Stephanie Ruskell, physical therapist and certified wound specialist, requires looking at the whole person - his or her circulatory system, sensory system, nutritional needs, and anything such as diabetes that could possibly contribute to why this wound isn't healing as quickly as it should.

"Our job," says Ruskell, "is to create the perfect environment for the wound, which means keeping it clean and moist and controlling the bacteria that could set in. Our concern is any wound that has not healed quickly; a chronic problem would be a wound that has persisted for more than 30 days."

Most important, says Barbara Dangerfield, hospital physical therapist and certified wound specialist, is to address the underlying cause of a wound. Many patients believe that to treat a wound they simply need to put something on top of it. But if the problem lies beneath the skin, the best topical care may not heal the wound.

"If a wound is not healing," says Ruskell, "it could be because the veins are not getting the blood back to the heart, so the blood pools at the site and creates a wound. In this case, we wrap the wound; it's all about compression, compression, compression."

An equally important part of wound management, says Dangerfield, lies in understanding the impact that chronic wounds have on people's lives. People become embarrassed, socially isolated, and incapacitated. "Our goal," she says, "is to make them comfortable and to help enhance the quality of their lives."