Myths about wound care

1) Wound Care Centers are the gold standard for healing all wounds.

All too often we see a wound such as the one pictured above, and as a second or third opinion we need to manage this patient because the wound is not healing. Wound care centers are usually very good at treating superficial wounds, but in the foot and especially in the area of the digits, we find that even a "small superficial dry ulceration of the hallux" can be a surgical emergency because of the proximity of bone and tendon in this area and are often not treated entirely well in a wound care center which is filled with nonsurgical wound care doctors. 

2) Diabetics don't heal well.

This is not always the case in a patient who has a dopplar examination of the lower extremities, and is found to not have any significant vascular disease. If you are eating 3 meals a day, and are not on dialysis chances are you have healing potential and just need better offloading, aggressive surgical debridement, and possibly a localized bone debridement or tendon procedure. We often team up with vascular surgeons, infectious disease doctors, and endocrinology doctors to help achieve optimal conditions to prevent amputations. 

If your foot and ankle wounds are not improved after 4 weeks of care, you need to see a wound care specialist board certified in foot and ankle surgery.



Brian Timm, DPM, FACFAS