The Importance of Wound Management

Wound management at home is an important issue because it needs to be performed by a family member or an appointed caregiver using the correct principles of wound management. Some key success factors include caregiver’s knowledge and correct therapy. Failure in wound management can cause prolonged care, higher expenses, and even fatal complications such as systemic infection and death. However, managing wound at home is not easy because it is time consuming and needs special attention.

Simple steps prior to perform home wound management is to ensure there is an appointed caregiver to be in charge, preferably one of the family members, has the time to perform routine wound care at home, and willing to be educated on the subject. This caregiver has to consult nurse/doctor at the hospital and receive information on how to properly manage wound at home. Afterwards, the caregiver needs to prepare the supplies needed including oral medication. The family also must provide a healthy and suitable diet for the patient to support the healing process.

Factors affecting wound healing:

1. Patient: age, disease, including anemia, diabetes, or immunodeficiency
2. Wound: the affected organ or tissue, type of wound, contamination or infection, time between injury and treatment
3. Local: blood supply and wound closure

Wound management includes:

1. Administering local/systemic antibiotic therapy
2. Ensuring cleanliness of wound and its surrounding area
3. Maintaining blood sugar below 200 mg/dl
4. Keeping the wound moist
5. Reducing pressure on the wound

During home treatment, the caregiver needs to continously communicate with the doctor about the wound progress although the patient is at home. Finding the right medical support is of utmost importance.