pressure wounds

• By mikey
• Posted September 14, 2009 at 9:46 pm
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Check out this link.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/932832/electric_bandage/

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• By mikey
• Posted September 14, 2009 at 9:49 pm
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Here is another link.

http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/apr/30/electric_bandage80629/

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• By Globalwoundcare
• Posted September 15, 2009 at 8:24 am
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Dycus, I am sorry to hear about your pressure sores. Geting them well is tough and slow. The most important message I can give you is to stay off the wounds. I recognize it is easier said than done. These wounds are caused by pressure. They will not heal if you do not relieve the pressure. If this means more time in bed on your stomach, then do it.

If you could email me a picture of your wounds, i might be able to provide a little more insight in wound care. One thing I almost always recommend is to have your physician see if you can tolerate 1/2 inch of nitroglycerin paste to be rubbed around the wounds three times per day. He should do a trial in the office. You need not do a dressing change three times per day, just rub the paste as close as you can to the wound area. The paste will bring blood to the wound area and hopefully reduce your healing time.

Something else. I like the vac, continue to use it, but watch for maceration or tissue breakdown. I also like silver, but watch for green drainage on your dressings. Psudomonas infections are nefarious for getting around silver products, more so for the solid products than the creams.

If your wound is not healing, it can usually be related to two problems, lack of blood supply or bioburden. The wound does not necessarialy need to be infected to be slowed by bioburden. It may be that there is too much necrotic tissue in the wound. Antibiotics do not kill bacteria in necrotic tissue, it is dead tissue which means no blood flow, hence no antibiotics distribution. And poor blood supply in the sacral or buttocks area is caused by pressure the majority of the time.

Dycus I hope this helps some.

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• By Learning1
• Posted September 16, 2009 at 10:09 am
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There is what seems like a fairly complete set of information and ideas on another post titled "Pressure Wounds", initially posted by Matt32. At the top of this page you'll see a "Search" line. Type in "Matt32" and click search. One of the things that will show up is "Pressure Wounds". Click on that, and you'll see a lot of ideas and suggestions.

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• By tears_from_heaven
• Posted September 18, 2009 at 12:29 am
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I am sorry to hear about your struggle with having these wounds I have had mine under control since 95, their pretty small but they have resurfaced again once in 2001,2006, and again. I have been able to heal them at home since their small, but its never easy because when you don't see it they have opened again. The one on the right is small but the deepth have touched the bone its no bigger then a penny, it was more had turned into blister outside around the wound. I was told it was the way the body was trying to heal, it was a hard crust, with the crust on the wound it would take a longer time to heal.

I picked on it at times to make sure it was clean I would suggest doing that, since the skin is very fragile, I was given a cream to cover with dressing but worked only for awhile since I was told not to cover it.

Another thing that helped me was these bandages they sell them at all drugs stores since my wounds are small it cover well and it has anticbatics on them so that a plus.

Another thing that I am thankful to have found out was cover my wound with vasline, since it hepls protect cuts, and burns I also learned that an ulcer wound is like a burn so the vaseline worked wonders. I use it at night I sugguest doing that at night since your not moving around a lot, and also putting a lot of it helps.

On my visit to a third wound clinic I was told instead of the vaseline to put coco butter it helps with the skin, I yet to try the coco butter I am still using the vasline but this weekend I will be trying the whole coco butter thing I will keep anyone update if it helps or not.

On my second visit to another clinic which suggested to have a flap done which now I am a bit scared because if you think about it another cut so I am not sure what to do, but I told the doctor their about the vaseline she also suggested 100% olive oil but again my wounds are healed right now so I don't know how it would work on a big open wound.

I know the vaseline worked on my right wound but it was a small line that opened and god knows it worked great I hope this might help others who are seeking help like I still am...

May god bless every single peron on here ...

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• By Matt32
• Posted September 18, 2009 at 11:13 pm
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Hi Dycus,

I feel for you. I've had what started out as a little bitty sore like you described and to this day I still have it. As Learning1 stated, there is another discussion started by me on these things. Couple things mentioned that I have not tried is the electric bandage thing or the nitroglycerin paste, but I've tried everything else, even the wound vac, which was working fine up until a couple months ago. It had to be removed because of infection. The home health nurse was trying a new method to getting things healed on me by placing the vac on the wound so as to get blood flow from the wound, and it all seemed to be working great until one day, I discovered that blood was not continuing to come out like it should but regular drainage. When time came for a dressing change, everything was infected and all the months of work put into healing was gone. I've basically been back to square one since that time and everything is improving very slowly, but like it has been mentioned, these things take time. My family physician agreed that if mine had not been debrided the way it was, I would not have problems today, but thanks to him, I went and seen a great specialist as to whom I call "the best thing to happen to the medical field".

In closing, if you haven't done so, check out that discussion on pressure wounds and you'll see everything from Medihoney to Aquacel to the wound vac. Of course with the wound vac, you have to be careful with who you deal with cause the main one in my opinion is only in it for money and have no care in the world for a patient's well being.

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• By Learning1
• Posted September 19, 2009 at 12:02 pm
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Tears from Heaven's comments are one of the reminders that some of the old remedies are often the best. She mentioned pure vasoline as being a key for her.

The old tried and true method, from before antibiotics, is the one related in the naturopathic magazline link (http://www.naturalnews.com/z026812_sugar_antibiotic_honey.html). In that they use a ring of gauze, saturated with a pure vasoline, and twisted like a rope, around the edges of the sore. Then they packed the sore with 1/4 inch of sugar, put a sponge on top of that, and bandage that. Or you can use honey instead of the sugar. And change the bandage every day. My sister has heard of several cases where this worked well, and the article relates a number.

It has apparently prevented surgery, and brought helped the body heal itself completely, avoiding the need for surgery, in a large number of cases over the years. So before surgery of any type is considered, it sounds like this would be worth trying.

Of course, with this, try to stay off of the area as much as possible. The area needs its energy to heal, and the one way it has to supply the energy itself is by the blood flow.

Also, those into energy medicine point out that sick or ailing cells have lost energy. Basically, they lose electrons, or the electrons if present drop to a lower energy orbit. What they have found where they do tests and trials, and when people do experiment, is that healing is speeded up when appropriate energy is added. This seems to be part of why things like lasers, speical lamps like the bitron, pulsed magnetic, electric stimulation (i.e. the electronic bandages), and even scenar help. Even thousands of years ago, doctors would proscribe sunlight, and this seems to be part of the same mechanism. If you have access to one of these modalities, it would also be worth trying, and regular use is what seems to help the most.

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• By Globalwoundcare
• Posted September 20, 2009 at 11:26 am
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A little FYI, I am seeing some very good results utilzing full body hyperbaric oxygen therapy followed up with an electical stimulator to the limb or around the wound site.

The topical medicine applied to the wounds, we are currently rotating. We alter between something that will reduce the wound's bioburden and something that will encourgae arterial perfusion and granulation.

One more point. Dressing changes. Do not allow saturated dressings to stay on. At the same time try not to change dressings any more frequently than every other or every two days. With pressure wound this can be a problem. Especially wounds on your buttock area. Copious drainage may be a sign of too much bioburden, using products like Dermawound can help dry this up and reduce the bioburden.

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• By papito1
• Posted September 28, 2009 at 6:29 pm
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I JUST NEED TO SAY A FEW SIMPLE THINGS, ITS SAD THAT WE HAVE TO EXPIRENCE SUCH, I HAD A QUARTER SIZE SORE ONE TIME IN MY EARLY STAGE IN BEING PARALYZE T-7 NOT KNOWING NOTHING BUT I REALIZE, ALL I NEED WAS TO TRAIN MYSELF TO JUST MOVE AROUND EVERY 20 MINUTE AND SO, GET CUSHION SHOWER CHAIR, TOILET RISE WAS PLASTIC BUT I GLUED CUSHION ON TOP OF IT AND WORKS GREAT. I ALSO GOT A CREAM XENADERM AND WORK ON HEALING TO IT WAS GONE. HAD NOT SEEN ANOTHER ONE BUT I JUST WANT TO SAY THAT I NEEDED TO DO IT AND NOT BE LAZY ABOUT IT, NOT CARING ALONG WITH DEPRESSION HANGING OVER MY HEAD, I KNEW THAT IF I DIDNT PUSH MYSELF I WOULD BE FOCUS ON HEALING A SORE NOW AND RISKING MY LIFE OVER MY LACK OF TAKING CARE OF MYSELF. I PRAY YOU GET HEAL AND OTHERS AND EDUCATE AND TRAIN YOURSELF TO STAY HEALTHY. GOD BLESS!

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