What a Wound Care Center can do for you

If you have some type of wound that needs urgent treatment or one that is not healing as it should be, you could take yourself to a wound care center NYC or whatever is closest to you. There a wound care specialist NYC can take a look, talk to you about what has been happening and assess your treatment and aftercare needs. This is a place that specializes in treating wounds that either have not begun to heal in two weeks or after 6 weeks is still not fully healed.

Common reasons a person might have to go to visit a specialist include skin tears, pressure sores, radiation sores, diabetic complications like swollen feet and legs, foot ulcers and then surgical wounds. There are many reasons a wound may not be healing properly. Diabetes as mentioned and others including;

• Poor circulation caused by diabetes or something else
• Poor immune system
• Bad nutrition
• Nerve damage
• Smoking
• Not being able to move around
• Drinking too much alcohol

Unfortunately in some cases wounds can take months of care before they heal, and sometimes, they never completely do.

What happens in a wound care center NYC

At the center or clinic, a team of medical staff such as nurses, doctors, and physical therapists will be a part of your assessment and treatment. They will examine and take measurements, look at your blood flow, work out why the healing has stopped and decide on how to best treat you. Treatment is important to prevent infection, amputation, new wounds developing and to keep you healthy and moving.

Treatment options

There are a number of possible treatments, after cleaning it and putting on a suitable dressing. One option is debridement. This is where they remove the dead tissue and skin from the wound. Some patients may be put under if the wound is large. Debridement via surgery involves using sharp tools to cut away the dead tissue. That is why the wound appears larger after this treatment. Other ways to remove dead tissue are with a syringe wash, a whirlpool bath, wet to dry dressings and using enzymes.

Then your wound care specialist NYC will clean it and apply a dressing of a type they judge to be the best. There are gels dressings, foams, films and gauze for example. There are other treatment options such as hyperbaric oxygen therapy where oxygen at a higher than normal pressure improves healing. Or you may need;

• An ultrasound which uses sound waves to improve the healing
• Negative pressure therapy where they create a vacuum around the dressed wound pulling out infection fluids and improving blood circulation
• Compression stockings that you wear on the dressed wound to improve blood flow
• Growth factor therapy
• Artificial skin to cover the wound

Whether your problem is skin tears , bed sores, diabetic ulcers, whatever the wound, the center will treat you for as long as is needed and will make sure your primary doctor is sent updates on the treatment and healing.