October 5 – Wound care is a now available locally with the Key West Surgical Group.
Nikki Sommer, a nurse with Key West Surgical Group, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5 FM for Medical Matters this morning to talk about wound care.
Sommer said, “We see wounds of all types, but these wounds are kind of the troublesome ones that give you a run for your money.”
Diabetic foot ulcers are one wound that needs specific care.
Sommer said, “Diabetics can be as a patient as a whole a very complicated patient, especially if their blood sugar is uncontrolled. It’s toxic to the body because your blood sugar is out of control. It does a couple of things. One being that it constricts the vessels, impeding the blood flow, so if you have a wound obviously it delays the wound healing.”
The other factor that’s troublesome is it causes diabetic neuropathy, which causes people to lose feeling in their feet. So if you spend a lot of time walking and get a blister, diabetics at a certain level in the disease can’t feel that.
Sommer said, “Since they don’t feel it, they don’t know it. A simple blister can turn into a huge problem, infection that doesn’t heal.”
In severe cases, some diabetics have had to have amputations, some of which can start with what should be a simple wound.
Sommer said, “It’s good to be aware of what’s going on with your body if you’re a diabetic and if you do have a cut or a blister or something that you see it starting to get red, you need to seek medical attention right away.”
If you know what caused the problem, avoid it. So don’t use shoes that give you blisters.
Treatment may begin with an antibiotic ointment or possibly even oral antibiotics. If it’s particularly concerning, intravenous antibiotics might be required.
Venous ulcers are also a concern if someone has radio ablation for varicose veins.
Sommer said, “There could be an infected wound as a result of the delayed healing process. In conjunction with the procedure there usually does need to be wound care. There’s a decrease in blood flow to the area that’s injured. The blood pools in that area and creates a wound.”
Keeping the wound clean, applying dressing with antibiotic ointment and elevating the leg can help take the pressure off the area to help speed healing.
Sommer said, “Unfortunately sometimes it needs a little bit more care than just the basic wound care.”
Pressure wounds and pressure ulcers can be a bit of a different story. The most common kind are bed sores.
Sommer said, “Pressure ulcers are for that population that have problems with mobility or need constant assistance to transfer say from sitting to standing or even from side to side positions. The pressure builds up and can cause skin breakdowns. The best thing to do is try to alleviate that from happening at all, but unfortunately sometimes you just can’t.”
Nutrition plays a big part in that as well. As people get older, they sometimes don’t want to eat and drink as much, which can also create delayed wound healing.
In fact, lying in one position for two to three hours can actually start skin breakdown.
That’s why moving around is so important.
Sommer said, “If you do sit for long periods of time and say you have a wound, it could delay wound healing even in a healthy individual. So you just need to be aware. Especially this younger generation that sits for hours on the computer or on their phones or playing video games. It’s important that you get up and you move.”
More advanced wounds could require daily wound care.
Sommer said, “Depending on where it is, it could be a burden to the patient or to the family member and it becomes overwhelming because either it’s daily or they need to come into the office frequently to have the wound debrided.”
Some dressing options include ones that have anti-microbial properties as well as collagen, which would last a week.
Sommer said, “It takes the responsibility off the patient or a caregiver.”
Skin grafts could be necessary in some advanced cases with wounds.
Sommer said, “We have seen if there are deep wounds sometimes that go down to the bone or the tendon and depending how aggressive one of the surgeons has to go in and debride that wound, they might need to go in and do a skin graft to help close that area, but we’re hoping with this new technology that we’re going to be using, we can get the wound healing better and not have to do any type of deep surgical intervention.”
If a person has delayed wound healing, the body will try to fix itself by putting a film over the wound, but that ends up trapping bacteria and causing inflammation, which invades the skin and the issue underneath.
Sommer said, “Just know that we’re here. That there are options. You don’t have to go to Miami. We will assess almost every type of wound and try and help you as best we can.”
For more information on wound care, click here: https://www.keywestsurgicalgroup.com/