Wound Healing Center
What is wound care?
 A
major emphasis of the Center is outpatient wound care and
follow-up to reduce wound deterioration and to promote wound
healing. When the body's natural healing process is delayed
or hindered by medical conditions such as diabetes or vascular
disease, the wound becomes an ongoing problem.
There are two sets of factors that can impede the healing
process-local and broader. Local factors that interfere with
the healing process include pressure; a dry environment (wounds
kept in a moist environment heal three to five times faster,
with less pain, than those exposed to a dry environment);
trauma and tissue swelling; infection; inability to control
bowel and bladder function; and local tissue death.
Broader systemic factors can also impede healing at a wound
site. These include age, body build, chronic disease such
as diabetes or renal failure, nutritional status, poor circulation,
insufficient blood supply, suppressed immune system, and radiation
therapy.
The aging process increases everyone's risk of developing
a chronic, non-healing wound. A history of smoking, poor dietary
habits such as a high fat diet, and obesity can increase a
person's risk of developing a non-healing wound as these habits
affect the body's circulatory system. A family history of
'circulation problems' may also be a warning sign. Poor eating
habits that lead to nutritional insufficiencies, not uncommon
in the elderly, can contribute to the development and poor
healing of wounds. Chronic conditions such as hypertension,
renal disease, peripheral vascular disease, and diabetes increase
a person's risk factors as well.
People with Diabetes Mellitus are particularly prone to developing
non-healing wounds and are at greater risk of developing complications
from those wounds if not properly treated. More than 50 percent
of patients seen in some wound healing centers have a diabetes-related
chronic, non-healing wound.
Diabetes is a condition where the body cannot use blood sugar
effectively. People with Type 1 diabetes, usually developed
when they are younger, must take insulin injections daily
to control their blood glucose. People with Type 2 diabetes,
which accounts for about 85 percent of the people in the United
States who have diabetes, as a rule develop the disease when
they are older. People with Type 2 diabetes can usually control
their disease with diet or oral medication; sometimes insulin
is required.
Having either type of diabetes which is not well controlled
leads not only to decreased blood circulation in the lower
extremities, but also affects the nervous system so even if
a wound develops, because of poor fitting shoes for example,
the person may not feel the wound.
The increased blood sugar levels also increase the risk of
infections at the wound site, which can lead to gangrene.
Aggressive treatment of these wounds, in a wound healing center
such as the one at the Battle Creek Health System, can significantly
decrease a person's risk of having their foot or leg amputated.
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