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Wound assessment is a component of wound management.As far as may be practical, the assessment is to be accomplished before prescribing any treatment plan. The objective is to collect information about the patient and about the wound, that may be relevant to planning and implementing the treatment.
A wound is any disruption of or damage to living tissue, such as skin, mucous membranes, or organs. [1] [2] Wounds can either be the sudden result of direct trauma (mechanical, thermal, chemical), or can develop slowly over time due to underlying disease processes such as diabetes mellitus, venous/arterial insufficiency, or immunologic disease. [3]
Surgical wounds can become infected by bacteria, regardless if the bacteria is already present on the patient's skin or if the bacteria is spread to the patient due to contact with infected individuals. [5] Wound infections can be superficial (skin only), deep (muscle and tissue), or spread to the organ or space where the surgery occurred. [5]
The International Red Cross wound classification system is a system whereby certain features of a wound are scored: the size of the skin wound(s); whether there is a cavity, fracture or vital structure injured; the presence or absence of metallic foreign bodies. A numerical value is given to each feature (E, X, C, F, V, and M).
The type of wound (incision, laceration, puncture, etc.) has a major effect on the way a wound is managed, as does the area of the body affected and presence of any foreign objects in the wound. A serious wound or any complication may require a call to emergency medical services. Any wound requires being disinfected after it stops bleeding.
Timing is important to wound healing. Critically, the timing of wound re-epithelialization can decide the outcome of the healing. [11] If the epithelization of tissue over a denuded area is slow, a scar will form over many weeks, or months; [12] [13] If the epithelization of a wounded area is fast, the healing will result in regeneration.
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Research into hormones and wound healing has shown estrogen to speed wound healing in elderly humans and in animals that have had their ovaries removed, possibly by preventing excess neutrophils from entering the wound and releasing elastase. [26] Thus the use of estrogen is a future possibility for treating chronic wounds.