title: Quality of measurements of acute surgical and traumatic wounds using a digital wound-analysing tool.
abstract: The aim of this study was to assess the reliability of measurements using a wound-analysing tool and their interpretability. Wound surface areas and tissue types, such as granulation, slough and necrosis, in twenty digital photographs were measured using a specific software program. The ratio of these tissue types in a wound was calculated using a wound profile. We calculated the intraclass coefficient or κ for reliability, standard error of measurement (SEM) and smallest detectable change (SDC). The inter-rater reliability intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was 0·99 for surface area, 0·76 for granulation, 0·67 for slough and 0·22 for necrosis. The profiles gave an overall κ of 0·16. For test-retest reliability, the ICC was 0·99 for surface area, 0·81 for granulation, 0·80 for slough and 0·97 for necrosis. The agreement of the applied profiles in the test-retest was 66% (40-100). SEM and SDC for surface area were 0·10/0·27; for granulation, 6·88/19·08; for slough, 7·17/19·87; and for necrosis, 0·35/0·98, respectively. Measuring wound surface area and tissue types by means of digital photo analysis is a reliable and applicable method for monitoring wound healing in acute wounds in daily practice as well as in research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic, Reconstructive and Hand surgery, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. d.landa@erasmusmc.nl.
authors.forename: Dymmie Lc
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Landa
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic, Reconstructive and Hand surgery, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.|Department of Public Health, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Anne-Margreet
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: van Dishoeck
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Ewout W
authors.initials: EW
authors.lastname: Steyerberg
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic, Reconstructive and Hand surgery, Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Steven Er
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Hovius
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D009336:Necrosis; D010781:Photography; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014945:Wound Healing
keywords: Digital wound photographs; Interpretability and reliability; Measurement; Surface area and tissue types; Surgical wounds