Chronic wounds can get worse and lead to a serious infection or other further complications. As a result, it’s critical to treat chronic wounds properly and use the most appropriate products in wound care and management.
Common causes of chronic wounds
Many chronic wounds are often caused by injuries and underlying medical conditions. Some of those causes are:
- Deep burns
- Trauma and injury to the skin
- Bed sores or pressure injuries as a result of being immobile
- Surgical cuts that may have become infected and that are slow to heal
- Certain types of ulcers (e.g. trophic ulcers, Buruli ulcers)
- An underlying medical condition such as diabetes (this affects blood circulation and delivery of essential nutrients to the wound area)
Wounds can undergo a slow healing process often because of the following:
- Medical conditions (a disease that affects how the immune system functions)
- Certain medications (might interfere with the body’s natural healing process)
- Age
- Poor food choices (not enough nutrients for wounds to properly heal)
- Bacterial infection
- Persistent bleeding
- Dead skin
- Constant pressure and friction on the wound area
- Smoking (impairs healing)
- Varicose veins (restricted blood circulation)
Treating chronic wounds
The body undergoes natural healing. Our job then is to aid natural healing and prevent infection and other serious complications. Some of the ways to accomplish that are:
- Gentle cleaning of the wound
- Surgically removing dead skin
- Dressing the wound and keeping your wounds dressed (wounds tend to heal faster in warm conditions)
- Taking specific antibiotics
- Treating or managing the underlying medical condition (e.g. better control of blood sugar levels)
Even with regular and effective wound care and management, serious complications might still arise. Consult your doctor right away if you or the person you care for experiences any of the following:
- Pain that gets worse
- Additional pus or discharge coming from the wound
- Bleeding
- Fever (there might already be a moderate or severe infection)
The key here is to keep monitoring the chronic wounds and see whether they’re getting worse or better. It’s also essential to address the underlying cause (e.g. poor diet, consistently high blood sugar) so that natural wound healing will be a bit easier and faster (and prevent further complications as well).
