Why wound wont heal

Wounds need a supply of oxygen, nutrients, and other vital growth factors to heal promptly and properly. Without a healthy blood supply to the damaged tissue, progress may be significantly impacted and could lead to chronic and potentially dangerous problems. Any wound that takes longer than four weeks to heal can be considered chronic. Without treatment, you increase your risk of serious health complications, such as advanced or systemic infection and tissue loss, and you may even risk limb amputation.

When you have comorbidities such as diabetic and vascular disease, your window to seek medical attention will be shorter than four weeks. Contact Memphis Vein Center at the first sign of slow wound healing. You can call the office directly at , or request an appointment online.

Arcot and his team will evaluate both your injury and the reason for your slow healing. And when you catch heart disease at an early stage, the best treatment often involves lifestyle habits. Leg ulcers are open sores that appear in your lower leg. Infections may also be surgically excised as with abscesses and cysts. Once the infection is treated and eradicated, the body is then able to resume its normal course of organic wound healing.

Edema is fluid that accumulates in the skin, dermis or fatty tissue and usually occurs in the lower extremities.

This fluid build up is typically due to venous insufficiency poor venous return and is a risk for developing sores venous ulcers. Once those sores form, edema is also a major barrier to healing by blocking the flow of nutrients to and from the area.

As with poor circulation, various forms of compression therapy are employed to transport or force the fluids back into the circulatory system including manual lymphatic drainage, compression therapies and specific medications like Lasix. Once the edema has been resolved, proper wound healing can occur. Just as you cannot build a house without the building blocks, bricks or foundation, the body cannot build new tissues without an adequate supply of protein. In fact, insufficient nutrition is, by far, the most overlooked reason why wounds will not heal.

Treating the outside of wounds with grafts, flaps, special compression wraps and debriding agents can only heal wounds to the degree that there is adequate nutrition inside the body. So with malnutrition and insufficient protein intake, the wound-healing process is fundamentally halted until these insufficiencies are corrected.

This means a very substantial intake increase is needed to heal wounds in addition to the amounts needed to carry on normal daily body functions. In fact, the amount of protein alone needed can be up to three times the recommended daily requirement.

At Encompass HealthCare, we use blood work along with an indirect calorimeter to determine a patient's nutritional needs during healing.

When a wound undergoes repetitive pressure due to bumping or rubbing against a surface, it is said to be undergoing repetitive trauma. This can lengthen the healing process or stop it completely. This problem is magnified in paraplegic patients since they cannot feel if one or both of their feet are continuously bumping on their wheelchair, for example. Similarly, in spinal cord injury patients, pressure ulcers can develop due to lack of body movement such as when they are sleeping in the same position night after night without the ability to shift, or even when watching a two-hour movie without repositioning.

In these cases, diligent offloading and repositioning are keys to resolving repetitive trauma to the wound. Then, normal blood circulation can resume and wound healing can occur. As you can see, it's important to understand the five reasons why a wound won't heal: poor circulation, infection, edema, insufficient nutrition, and repetitive trauma to the wound. The challenge to wound care providers is to recognize these conditions when they are occurring and also to understand that more than one condition can be operating at the same time.

Editor's Note: This article was originally published on December 3, and has been updated for accuracy and comprehension. About the Author Dr. Bruce Ruben is the Founder and Medical Director of Encompass HealthCare , an outpatient facility featuring advanced wound care, IV antibiotic therapies, hyperbaric oxygen treatment, nutritional assessment, and other treatment modalities.

Gaping holes. Bloody feet. Infection and bacteria result in a slower-healing wound. Chronic wound. These wounds are primarily known as diabetic ulcers, venous leg ulcers and pressure ulcers. Chronic diseases like diabetes can impact blood circulation and create trouble when injuries occur. Diabetes causes high levels of blood glucose, which can impact the nervous and venous system over time and lead to improper blood circulation.

This, in return, causes difficulty for skin reparation. Poor circulation.