Wound care professionals need a baseline knowledge of the different types of wounds they encounter. Correctly diagnosing and treating the wound as well as any underlying causes, will give you and the patients you care for the best chance of success.
Types of wounds are classified as either acute or chronic. Let’s first look at acute wounds, which tend to move along the healing continuum normally and usually heal within six-eight weeks.
One literature review indicated that with more than 28 million operations in the U.S. nationwide, 1,500 estimated cases per year of retained surgical bodies left in patients take place.
In the 2016 case of Thompson v. Mangham Home Care, Inc., who left gauze in a patient’s surgical wound was at issue.
The patient saw her primary care physician for boils/sores on both of her buttocks in 2008.
The primary doctor prescribed antibiotics without success, and the patient was referred to a general surgeon who treated the condition with antibiotics and warm soaks.
(more…)