Treatment

A treatment plan will be developed after the initial evaluation has been completed. We follow evidenced-based practices and try to tailor a treatment to match the patient’s needs and wishes. We re-evaluate the treatment plan on each visit and make changes when appropriate.

Conditions that can cause wounds include:

• Parasitic infections
• Infectious diseases
• MRSA
• Diabetes
• Peripheral arterial disease

Is the Wound Healing Center Right for You?

Everyone gets a scratch, a bruise or bump now and then. But if you are severely injured or suffer from a condition that inhibits wound healing, you know that those minor hurts develop into weeks, months or even years of debilitating injury.

Conditions that affect how a wound heals, or doesn't heal, include:

• Diabetes
• Circulatory problems
• Peripheral vascular disease
• Medications that inhibit healing
• Severe injuries
• Infection
• Long-term immobilization 
• Radiation damage to tissue

 Most patients who visit the Wound Healing Center have been suffering with a non-healing wound and have visited their family doctor about it but found that traditional treatment just hasn't helped with the healing.

Assessment

Specialized treatment at the Wound Healing Center begins with a comprehensive assessment of the wound—why has it developed? What is your lifestyle? What factors are contributing to why the wound isn't healing? The assessment may include:

• Overview of your medical history
• Questionnaire on your general health and lifestyle
• Bone scan
• MRI
• Evaluation of tissue samples in the laboratory

From these tests, doctors learn information about your blood flow, tissue oxygenation and whether or not infection is complicating the healing process. The next step is to design a healing treatment plan specific to your situation.

After your assessment, your doctor designs a specialized 12- to 16-week treatment plan based on those results. Treatment may include one or a combination of:

• Vacuum therapy
• Prescribed medicine
• Physical therapy

Most patients see results with medical and surgical management and rehabilitation. If necessary, however, the doctor may prescribe hyperbaric oxygen therapy, a method of treatment during which you breathe 100 percent oxygen at higher-than-normal pressures in a specially designed chamber. The pure oxygen helps to grow healthy tissue, fight infection and enhance the effects of the antibiotic.

You will also be instructed on how to properly care for your wound, change dressings and modify behaviors to keep from re-injuring the wound.

Your Role in Healing

Much of the success of your wound treatment depends on your level of commitment and participation. As an active member of your wound management team, you will need to follow directions carefully, watch your progress and keep your scheduled appointments. Also, it is important that you refrain from smoking, as smoking also delays healing. If there is ever any part of your treatment plan that is not clear, please ask.

Call our wound healing staff for answers to any questions concerning your treatment program.

Wound Healing Team

The Wound Healing Center partners with many medical specialties to identify, treat and heal your wound, including:

• General surgeons
• Endocrinologists
• Podiatrists
• Infectious disease specialists
• Pain management specialists
• Physical therapists
• Orthopedic specialists
• Otolaryngologists
• Internal medicine specialists

Depending on the type of wound you have and the condition from which it stems, these doctors partner with your family doctor to develop a treatment plan. Your wound-healing doctor monitors your progress and keeps your family doctor informed throughout the program and both work as a team to address the factors leading to your non-healing wound.