Impaired wound healing in surgical patients with varying degrees of malnutrition.
The relationship between nutritional state and wound healing was examined in 66 adult surgical patients. Wound-healing response was assessed by measuring the collagen content (hydroxyproline) of fine tubes of Gore-tex inserted subcutaneously along standardized needle track arm wounds. After a period of 7 days, the tubes were removed and it was found that there was a higher hydroxyproline content in the tubing of 36 normally nourished patients than there was in the tubing of 21 patients with mild protein energy malnutrition (p less than 0.01) and 9 patients with moderate to severe protein energy malnutrition (p less than 0.01). There was no difference in the wound-healing response between the two latter groups of patients who had significantly different degrees of malnutrition. The results suggest that a definite abnormality in the wound-healing response exists in malnourished surgical patients, but it occurs earlier in the course of the illness than previously supposed.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000886:Anthropometry; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D011502:Protein-Energy Malnutrition / Q000097:blood / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013514:Surgical Procedures, Operative; D014945:Wound Healing