Title:Chronic Wounds: Innovations in Diagnostics and Therapeutics
Volume: 25
Issue: 41
Author(s): Marieke Haalboom*
Affiliation:
- Department of Vascular Surgery/Medical School Twente, Medisch Spectrum Twente, Enschede,Netherlands
Keywords:
Chronic wound, wound healing, diagnostic, therapy, inflammation, proliferation.
Abstract: Background: A major global health issue is the existence of chronic wounds. Appropriate
diagnosis and treatment is essential to promote wound healing and prevent further
complications. Traditional methods for treatment and diagnosis of chronic wounds have shown
to be of limited effectiveness. Therefore, there is a need for the development of diagnostic and
therapeutic innovations in chronic wound care.
Objective: This mini-review aims to provide insight in the current knowledge of the wound
healing process and the deficiencies encountered in chronic wounds, which provides a basis for
the development of innovations in chronic wound care. Furthermore, promising diagnostic and
therapeutic innovations will be highlighted.
Methods: Literature was searched for recent articles (=<10 years) describing the current
knowledge about the wound healing process and chronic wounds. The most promising diagnostic
and therapeutic innovations were gathered from articles published in the past 5 years.
Results/Conclusion: Wound healing is a well-organized process consisting of four phases: coagulation,
inflammation, proliferation and wound remodelling. Chronic wounds often stagnate
in the inflammatory phase and/or experience an impaired proliferative phase. This mini-review
has demonstrated that increased knowledge about the processes involved in wound healing has
paved the way for the development of new diagnostic tools and treatments for chronic wounds.
Increased knowledge about bacterial invasion and infection in has encouraged researchers to
develop diagnostic tools to help clinicians detect these phenomena appropriately and in time.
Other researchers have shown that they are able to design/extract biochemical compounds that
intervene in the disrupted healing processes in chronic wounds.
