title: The specialized wound care center: a 7-year experience at a tertiary care hospital.
abstract: Multidisciplinary wound care centers have proliferated as a result of an increasing need for care of nonhealing wounds. Information regarding types of wounds treated, length of treatment, compliance with treatment, and rates of healing was collected from a tertiary care hospital-based wound center over a 7-year period. Venous stasis ulcers were the most common type of wound treated (21%) and were also the most likely to heal. Pressure ulcers (20%), diabetic neuropathic ulcers (14%), ischemic ulcers (6%), and postsurgical wounds (6%) comprised the remainder of wounds treated. The success of treating wounds varied greatly with the wound's etiology. Despite the chronic nature of these wounds, most patients did not become long-term patients of the wound center. This study provides baseline outcome measures, which can serve as the basis for the comparison of treatment protocols and the development of prospective clinical trials.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic Surgery, University of Tennessee College of Medicine-Chattanooga, Chattanooga, Tennessee 37403, USA.
authors.forename: Alina D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Sholar
authors.forename: Lesley K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: J Wesley
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Culpepper
authors.forename: Larry A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Sargent
mesh_terms: D017048:Health Care Costs; D006757:Hospital Units; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D010348:Patient Care Team; D010352:Patient Dropouts / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013714:Tennessee; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014647:Varicose Ulcer / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000601:surgery*; D020246:Venous Thrombosis / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000601:surgery*; D014945:Wound Healing / Q000502:physiology*