Wound management and best practices

Question 1

What are the Benefits of moist wound healing

Answer 1

• facilitates the debridement process
• Lubricant
• Acts as transport medium
• Reduces likelihood of infection
• Prevents formation of scab
• Reduces pain

Question 2

What are the Basic elements of wound care

Answer 2

• Cleanse debris
• Manage exudate and odour
• Protect from trauma of infection
• Promote granulation and epithelialisation
• Manage pain/ discomfort
• Debride
• Warm, moist environment

Question 3

(T) Tissue management

Answer 3

Remove non viable via debridement
- Slough
- Necrosis
- Eschar

Protect viable tissue
- Granulating and epithelialising tissue

Question 4

What is debridement

Answer 4

Removal of non-viable tissue from a wound
- Surgical
- Sharp
- Biological
- Mechanical
- Autolytic
- Enzymatic

Question 5

(I) Wound states

Answer 5

• Contamination (non replicating organisms on wound)
• Colonisation (replicating micro-organisms of wound WITHOUT tissue damage)
• Local infection/critical colonisation ( microorganism replication and
  beginning of local tissue responses.
• Invasive infection (replicating organisms
  within a wound with subsequent host
  injury)

Question 6

Signs and symptoms of infection

Answer 6

• pain, heat, redness, swelling and purulence
• fever, leukocytosis

o Delayed healing
o Odour
o Friable, absent or abnormal granulation
o Change in colour of the wound
o Wound breakdown

Question 7

How to Obtain a Bacterial Wound Swab

Answer 7

• Clean the wound to remove any exudate,
  biofilm, debris and dressing products from the bed of the wound.
• Move swab across the wound without touching the edges or surrounding skin. zig-zag motion.
• Immediately and carefully, return the swab to collection container.

Question 8

(M) Moisture balance

Answer 8

• Controlling
  exudate
• Keep wound bed at optimal
  moisture level
• Supports growth
  of new tissue

Factors that impact healing:

Dry, Neutral or excessively moist wound

Question 9

(E) Epithelial advancement

Answer 9

• Supports healthy granulation tissue to assist proliferating epidermal cells to migrate
• Epidermal cells require repeated cell division at edge of wound for epithelialisation to occur