An estimated 23 million adults in the UK have some sort of scar. Normal scars are preceded by injury, immediate in onset, flat and asymptomatic. These are the most common type of scar and are a result of the body’s natural healing process. Hypertrophic and keloid scars occur when the healing process is deranged.
This article, abridged and amended from an article previously published in JCN, outlines the differences between these latter types.
To view original article please visit: http://www.jcn.co.uk/journal/03-2011/wound-management/1416-scar-therapies/?s=scarring
This article explores how effective exudate control and debridement can promote wound bed preparation and presents a 10-patient case series where Drawtex®, an advanced hydroconductive wound dressing with LevaFiber™ technology, improved the lives of patients with chronic wounds.
Sue Johnson, RN, MA, ANP, NMP, Lead Nurse Wound Care, Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Doncaster
Pam Spruce, BSc (Hons) Nursing Studies, DN, DN Cert, RGN, Clinical Director, TVRE Consulting, Stoke-on-Trent
Kathleen Leak, DPSN, RGN, Wound Care Sister, Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Doncaster
Denise Ridsdale, RGN, Nurse Practitioner, Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Doncaster
Article accepted for publication: April 2013
For the patient, wound infection can lead to poor healing outcomes and has the potential to result in life-threatening sepsis. For healthcare services, additional expense can be incurred due to the need for remedial treatment and extra clinician time. Poor wound infection rates malso attract negative publicity and damage the public’s perception of care standards. This article examines the essential roles played by prevention of infection, early diagnosis and the initiation of effective management strategies.
Martyn Butcher, Independent Tissue Viability and Wound Care Consultant, Devon
The UK has an expanding elderly population, which means that in the future nurses and clinicians who work in community-based units, such as nursing homes and hospices, will increasingly encounter age-related conditions such as palliative oedema and mixed aetiology ulceration. This article looks at duomed soft®, (medi UK, Hereford) a new hosiery solution, which is not only easy to apply, making patient self-care more likely, but also provides consistent mild compression in a format that is more cosmetically acceptable to patients.
Helen Butterfield, Leg Ulcer/Dermatology Specialist Nurse, Oxford
Exudate management is one of the key challenges for clinicians who have to deal with wounds. The World Union of Wound Healing Societies (WUWHS, 2007) highlighted the importance of appropriate dressing selection for exudate control and removal of excess exudate. Correct dressing selection ensures that the wound bed remains moist without becoming saturated, which in turn prevents damage and pain to the surrounding skin and reduces the risk of infection from strikethrough. This article examines the role of exudate in wound healing, and the inherent challenges in its management, both for patients and carers. The role of superabsorbent dressings is discussed and the findings of an evaluation of clinicians’ requirements and expectations of superabsorbent dressings are presented.
June Jones, JJ TVE, Tissue Viability Education, Southport, Merseyside
Jo Barraud, Tamaris Communications, Hitchin, Hertfordshire
The recent and ongoing changes to the NHS were instigated to absorb the increasing costs of an ageing population: the NHS needs to save £15–20 billion by the end of 2013/14 for reinvestment into frontline services (Department of Health [DH], 2010a; 2010b).
David Gray, Professor of Tissue Viability, Tissue Viability Practice Development Unit, Birmingham City University, and Clinical Nurse Specialist Tissue Viability, NHS Grampian, Aberdeen
With more and more advanced wound dressings becoming available, clinicians need to be selective when choosing the most appropriate treatment for patients with wounds in the community. Dressings are no longer tasked simply with protecting wounds and offering some level of absorbency, but need to be able to address both the physical and psychological aspects of having a wound to ensure patient-centred care. The sorbion range of dressings are developed to offer clinical solutions and provide cost-effective care.
Lisa Sutherland, Tissue Viability Lead, West Suffolk Hospital, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
Pressure ulcers are a significant problem in both the acute sector and the community, where nurses can spend a great deal of their time dealing with what is a painful and debilitating condition. As government policy encourages more care to be delivered in patients’ homes, finding solutions to pressure damage that aid healing and improve patients’ quality of life, as well as being cost-effective, is paramount. This article examines the background to pressure damage, as well as looking at its effect on community nurses’ workload. In particular, it focuses on the heel as a common site of pressure damage.
Lorraine Grothier, Clinical Nurse Specialist (Tissue Viability), Tissue Viability Service, Provide, delivering NHS and local authority services
