The general consensus among practitioners of medicine asserts that wounds or injuries exhibit varying degrees of healing within the first four weeks from when they occur. When people succumb to wounds that won’t heal, they often seek the services of a qualified physician or practitioner that offer findings as to the reason or reasons for recovery.
Wounds are understood to mean that compromise has occurred in a person who has compromised skin tissue. They may show signs of bone fracture, skin or muscle tear, or burn from fire. There are five identified reasons predicated for wounds that won’t heal. These may or may not exist independently in and of themselves. Examination, lab tests, and non-invasive procedures help determine the factors influencing non-healing.
- Infection: Infection is identified either through visible skin lesions, or a wound site is noted to have an overt abundance of viri, bacteria, or fungus. Known as invaders, natural healing is slowed when the white blood cells are not able to sufficiently destroy these foreign bodies. Lab tests may determine the type of treatment specific to the bacteria identified at one’s wound site. Wound care can also include the use of IV antibiotics. In more extreme situations, surgical removal of cysts and abscesses may be preferred.
- Edema: This is often identified as swelling occurring in specific parts of a patient’s lower extremities. They who are diagnosed with edema or swelling, share in common that blood has pooled to a specific area because it could not travel back to the heart. This is also found in another reason that wounds won’t heal, poor circulation.
Patients who are unable to turn themselves over, or modify a seated position, may develop edema and sores. In most cases, compression therapy may be offered to the patient who is found with an edema preventing wound healing.
- Poor circulation: Its believed that two causes indicate this reason for impaired wound healing. That is artery insufficiency or vein insufficiency.
In Artery insufficiency, tests show the arteries have become blocked, and blood cannot flow freely through the arterial network. Patients found to have insufficient arterial flow are most commonly diagnosed with peripheral atherosclerosis, abbreviated as PAS. The blockage is removed either via bypass surgery or open angioplasty.
Insufficient veins are where blood may gather or leak to the lower extremities of the patient who is found to have a poor venous return. Blood cannot flow back to the heart by the vein network. In extreme cases, ablation via laser is used, which forces the blood flow to occur in an alternative venous route. More common is compression therapy with stockings or bands. Another option used is manual lymphatic drainage.
- Repeated trauma to the wound. Patients who fail to exhibit timely wound healing maybe they who experience repeat trauma to a wound site. A wound may be in one’s hands or feet that bump against a particular surface in the give and take of life. Assistance for he or she often requires position change to take the pressure off a wound site. Salves, monitoring, and appropriate means of care are perhaps the best ways to address this condition.
- Poor nutrition: Flaps, grafts, and compression therapy may be meant to treat surface areas of non-healing wounds, but the issue is more deep within the wound itself. Protein is believed to be the basic human building block, and lack thereof contributes to a reason that wounds continue for this reason. Medical facilities utilize blood work and an indirect calorimeter to determine the nutrition need of patients with non-healing wounds. In some cases, a maximum dose of protein exceeding the daily recommended amount may be a short-term strategy.
