Wounds can happen at home under a variety of circumstances. They can occur while cooking, when a sharp object accidentally scrapes the skin, or during minor accidents like falling off of a bike and skidding on the pavement. Animal bites are another type of injury that often occur at home, and more severe wounds can happen during car accidents or other traumatic events.

Diabetics needs to be extremely diligent about their wound care. Symptoms of diabetes include poor circulation, nerve damage and a compromised immune system. As a result, wounds take longer to heal and can lead to dangerous infection if not treated properly.

Tips for Treating Wounds at Home
If a wound is bleeding severely, call 911 as soon as possible for immediate professional assistance. It is usually possible to treat minor wounds at home, and in severe cases you will have to take the initial steps yourself before paramedics arrive. It’s a good idea to keep a first aid kit handy at all times to treat simple wounds yourself or to stabilize injuries before medical attention is administered.

According to the National Library of Medicine, the following treatment tips should be followed when treating wounds at home:

• Wash your hands thoroughly with soap or use an antibacterial hand sanitizer to prevent infection
• Wash the cut with mild soap and water and be sure to rinse away all soap residue
• If you see objects inside the wound or a body part is protruding, seek medical attention
• Apply pressure directly to the wound to stop bleeding
• Apply an antibacterial ointment, such as Neosporin
• Apply a clean bandage that will not stick to the wound

Things to Remember

• If a cut appears to be more than a quarter inch deep, you should seek medical care as it may require stitches to heal properly
• Poisonous snake bites, spider bites, stings, and animal bites can cause severe damage and require immediate medical attention

Long Term Wound Care

• Be sure to change dressings on a wound daily or as directed by your physician
• Follow proper wound cleansing techniques as determined by your physician
• Treat the wound with antibiotic ointment or use medication exactly as prescribed
• Carefully check for infection while changing the dressing
• Signs of infection include: red or swollen skin, a foul smell and warm skin
• Keep regular appointments for wound care

If you are experiencing a serious medical emergency, call 911 for assistance. University Hospital and Medical Center’s emergency department provides treatment to all patients as quickly as possible. The Wound Healing Center at UHMC also offers patients care specific to their medical condition to prevent the onset of dangerous infection. Please call our free Consult-A-Nurse® service to learn more about our wound healing services or for a physician referral at 1-888-256-7728.

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If you have diabetes, you probably know that it’s caused by too much sugar in your bloodstream. What you may not be aware of is that nearly 24 million adults and children in the U.S. have diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes, the less common form of the disease, occurs when your body does not produce the insulin needed to break down glucose in your blood for the cells. It usually is discovered in children and young adults, who must receive insulin shots.

On the other hand, Type 2 diabetes develops when the body needs more insulin than normal to break down the sugar in the blood. This form of diabetes is managed by various means, including medication and lifestyle changes.

Diabetic complications

People with diabetes are at higher risk of heart attack, stroke and high blood pressure than the average person. In addition, diabetes can damage blood vessels and nerves, which can affect circulation in a diabetic’s legs and feet and cause either numbness or a complete lack of feeling.

If a diabetic loses sensation in his legs or feet, he may not notice wounds that form on his legs or feet. Left unattended, these wounds can grow and become infected.

Continued lack of treatment may lead to severe pain, loss of function, and eventually, amputation of the legs or feet. The Amputee Coalition of America reports that over half of all amputations in the U.S. are due to diabetes or related complications. Most diabetic amputations were to the lower limbs.

In 2004, the most current year data was available, approximately 71,000 non-traumatic lower-limb amputations were performed in people with diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association.

Treating diabetic wounds

Paying close attention to their limbs can help diabetics minimize these complications, especially amputations. If discovered early, diabetic wounds can be treated successfully. Here are some of the treatment options:

• Hyperbaric oxygen therapy: The patient is placed in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber. Wounds are bathed in 100% oxygen, which speeds growth of new tissue and blood vessels.
• Nutrition therapy: Some diabetics do not get proper nutrition, and have vitamin and mineral deficiencies, which can slow healing.
• Compression therapy: This treatment option is appropriate when the patient has ulceration and swelling in the extremities.

UHMC can help

In the Wound Healing Center at UHMC, specially trained physicians, nurses and support staff treat patients with wounds caused by diabetes or related conditions. Our team will work with you to ensure the best possible results.

To learn more about the UHMC wound care program, call Alix Needham, our Wound Care Coordinator, at (954) 724-6474. If you would like a physician referral, contact Consult-A-Nurse^® at 1-866-442-2362, or visit University Hospital and Medical Center online.

External wounds can happen to people of all ages. Often, a wound results from a cut, a fall, or an illness. Sometimes, however, there may not be an obvious reason why someone develops a wound.

A wound is a tear in the skin. Depending on how the person received it, a wound can cause significant blood loss, infection, and loss of use of a limb or organ. Treating an external wound quickly can help speed up the healing process and help prevent complications.

According to the Association for the Advancement of Wound Care, the elderly, people in wheelchairs, anyone with mental or sensory impairment, and those with delicate skin run a higher risk of acquiring external wounds.

Types of external wounds

You are probably familiar with the following bodily wounds:

• Abrasion: This wound is caused by friction, like sliding into home plate during a baseball game.
• Bruise: These are most often caused when a part of the body is bumped or struck. Blood pools underneath the skin, giving it a blue, black or even greenish appearance.
• Cut: Normally straight edged, this kind of wound comes in all sizes. A cut with jagged edges is called a laceration.
• Puncture: This type of wound is caused by a sharp object like a nail, a thorn or a knife. It pierces the skin and creates a hole in the body.

Caring for external wounds

Use common sense when treating wounds. If a wound is minor, clean it, wrap it and put an antibiotic ointment on it to help prevent infection. You should seek medical help if a cut or puncture wound won’t stop bleeding despite applying pressure, if muscle or bone is visible, or if the wound was made by a rusty or unclean object.

If you go to the hospital, you will be asked questions about how you acquired the wound, any health conditions you have, including allergies, and any drugs you are taking.

After pain medication is administered to numb the area, the wound will be examined and cleaned to prevent infection. If the wound is on your hands or feet, the physician will ask you to move them, to see if your fingers or toes flex and respond normally. If not, there may be a lack of circulation or other damage.

The physician could order an x-ray if there is the possibility of a broken bone or some kind of object in the wound. Otherwise, if the wound is deep enough, it will be closed with stitches, and an antiseptic dressing or bandage applied.

The Wound Healing Center at UHMC can treat these types of injuries and many more, including animal and insect bites and diabetic ulcers. If you have questions, contact our Wound Care Coordinator at (954) 724-6454; call Consult-A-Nurse^® at 1-866-442-2362, or visit University Hospital and Medical Center online.

A wound is a break in the skin. For many adults and children, this happens in the form of a dog bite, a fall from a bicycle, or a slip of a kitchen knife.

On the other hand, the elderly can develop wounds as a result of having illnesses like diabetes and peripheral vascular disease (PAD), mobility issues, and being confined to a bed for a long time.

As people age, their skin becomes less supple due to a lack of moisture, and therefore, more vulnerable to outside forces. Elderly people are more susceptible to wounds because their skin becomes thinner, as does the layer of fat underneath. In addition, poor nutrition can slow the healing of an elderly person’s wounds.

Life cycle of a wound

There are generally four stages of a wound, no matter how it is acquired:

• Inflammation: This follows the actual creation of the wound. There is damage to the skin surface, blood vessels and, if serious enough, deep tissue and muscle.
• Proliferation: New cells and blood vessels are forming, which is why many wounds have a pink appearance. Collagen begins to form.
• Remodeling: The skin is renewing itself and strengthening. Collagen production continues.
• Maturation: Epithelial cells, which form the exterior layer of the skin, form and re-create the layer of protection that existed prior to the wound.

Common wounds in the elderly

One type of wound, pressure ulcers, is also referred to as bedsores. These are caused by unrelieved pressure on the skin by a hard object, such as a bone protrusion or a bed. The NCBI says that 70% of all pressure ulcers occur in geriatric patients. A pressure ulcer can be aggravated by incontinence of the bowels or bladder, if the wound has contact with feces and urine.

Other wounds common to older people are vascular ulcers and arterial ulcers, both of which are caused by lack of blood flow (circulation). And if an elderly person has diabetes, he or she is at risk for diabetic ulcers, which can lead to amputation of the lower legs and feet. The NCBI says that 60% of amputations of lower limbs in non-trauma situations are the result of diabetes.

Wound prevention and treatment

There are a number of steps that caregivers and healthcare professionals can take to help reduce wounds in the elderly. These include the following:

• Turn the patient in bed at least once every two hours[KM2] .
• Keep the skin moistened.
• Ensure the patient is receiving proper nutrition.
• Keep pressure off areas in danger of skin breakdown.

Wounds are treated using the following techniques and equipment:

• Cleansing
• Irrigation with saline
• Debridement (removal of dead tissue and/or foreign matter)
• Antibiotics
• Local anesthetic
• Sutures
• Dressings

A growing trend 

As the U.S. population ages, the need for wound care[KM4] will increase, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).

At the Wound Healing Center, we care for people of all ages who have wounds resulting from animal and insect bites, trauma and illness.

Many wounds common to the elderly are successfully treated. Sometimes they can be healed; in other cases, they can be managed to help the patient improve their quality of life .

If you have questions, please call our Wound Care Coordinator at (954) 724-6474. If you would like a doctor referral, contact Consult-A-Nurse^® at 1-888-256-7723, or visit University Hospital and Medical Center online.