What Your Treatment Plan Might Include

What is specialized wound care?

Once a treatment plan has been initiated, you will visit the Center on a regular basis for specialized treatments and documentation of the progress of your healing. You will also be fully instructed on how to do your own wound care at home between visits, as well as how to protect your wound from further injury. It is very important to remember that you are the most important part of your healing process. Keeping appointments and following directions are critical to attaining a positive healing outcome. The Center employs the most technologically advanced wound care therapy, including debridement, topical wound therapy, growth-factor therapy, tissue therapy, dressing selection, special shoes, and patient education. When wounds persist, a specialized and comprehensive approach is required for healing.

What your treatment plan might include:

Your treatment program will likely involve regular visits to the Center. These appointments typically run 45 minutes start to finish.

At each visit, your wound will be measured and evaluated to ensure proper healing and to adjust treatment if necessary. Special medications or procedures that will promote healing may also be used. You will always be involved in the plan of care and will be instructed in ways to help with the healing process, including how to change dressings, diet and lifestyle changes. You will be taught to monitor your own progress between visits and asked to tell us of any problems.

Note: You should refrain from smoking or the use of any tobacco products during the entire course of your treatment. Tobacco use will prolong or even prevent healing of a wound due to its effect on the blood vessels in your body.

Specific treatments might include:

• Dressings: Some have medicines or chemicals within the fibers of the dressing which promote healing and limit the potential for infection; there are also different levels of absorbency.
• Compression Therapy for control of swelling.
• Debridement: Removal of unhealthy tissue in the wound bed so healthy tissue can grow.
• Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy: Breathing 100% oxygen to aid the healing process.
• Antibiotic Therapy
• Topical Treatments: creams, lotions, ointments
• Nutritional Guidance: Wounds need certain vitamins, minerals and proteins in order to heal properly.
• Additional medical tests to get to the underlying cause of why a wound won't heal.

If you are sick or on medication:

If you have a cold or cough, the flu, sore throat, chills, nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea, inform the staff at the Center before your treatments begin. Also, alert the staff to any medications you are taking, or changes in medication during the course of your treatment. If you are diabetic, please eat properly and continue to take your prescribed medication to control your blood sugar level.