Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD)
Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD) is a condition that develops when the arteries that supply blood to the internal organs, arms and legs become completely or partially blocked.
Resources To Help You Prevent And Heal Chronic Wounds
You can trust us to help you heal, but you are also an important part of your healthcare team. These resources can help you learn more about health conditions that lead to chronic wounds, common types of wounds, advanced wound care treatments and more.
Common Chronic Wounds
An estimated 8.2 million Americans are living with a chronic or non-healing wound. The longer a chronic wound goes without proper treatment, the greater the risk of infection, hospitalization and amputation.
Preventing Reoccurring Wounds
Once you receive the proper wound care to heal your chronic wound, it’s important to keep your wound closed and be proactive in preventing reoccurring wounds. Here are some tips to help stop a wound from coming back.
Diabetes
A diabetic ulcer is a wound that occurs on the feet, heels or toes of people with diabetes. Many times, there is little to no feeling in the feet or the ulcer itself. A pulse is present and the skin is normal or warm to the touch. The skin on the legs and feet may be dry and flaky.
Advanced Wound Care Treatments
Wound care can be challenging. Healogics Wound Care Centers® offer a variety of advanced wound care treatments, such as hyperbaric oxygen therapy, that may help you heal better and faster.
Arterial vs. Venous Ulcers
There are two types of chronic wounds often associated with cardiovascular conditions: arterial ulcers, also called ischemic ulcers, and venous ulcers, also called stasis ulcers. For people living with heart disease, both arterial and venous ulcers can form when a bruise or scrape worsens or when the skin breaks down due to poor blood supply.
Infection Prevention And Management
Your skin protects the inside of your body from germs that cannot be seen. Germs can cause infection if you have a break in the skin. You can also get an infection in your bone. This is called osteomyelitis.
Diabetic Neuropathy
Diabetic neuropathy is the result of nerve damage from diabetes. Over half of people with diabetes have neuropathy and diabetes is the number one cause for neuropathy.
Wound Debridement
Wound debridement is the process of removing dead tissue from wounds. The dead tissue may be black, gray, yellow, tan, or white. Foreign material may also be on the wound. It may need to be removed.
Nutrition
Good nutrition, including an increase in the right type of calories, is the one common treatment requirement across all types of wounds. This is because the presence of a chronic wound raises the metabolic demands of our immune system.