Coping with chronic wounds

The combination of an ageing population and increasingly common chronic conditions means that there are more wounds that prove difficult-to-heal. As a result, a recent paper notes, chronic wounds place 'a significant burden on the health system and individual patients'.¹

For example, during the European Wound Management Association's (EWMA) meeting in London (13-15 May), researchers from Dublin reported that during a week in November 2013, 3.7% (n=445) of an urban population had at least one wound. Surgical wounds were the most common (42.7%), followed by leg ulcers (18.9%), pressure ulcers (10.3%) and diabetic foot ulcers (5.2%). Two-thirds (67.6%) of patients had one wound. But one patient had 11 recorded wounds. Almost one in 12 (8.5%) chronic wounds persisted for more than five years.