Wound Care

Healing wounds is an important step in the rehabilitation process. When a wound does not heal in the proper manner or time period expected, it can delay a person’s full return to their daily lives following injury or surgery.

Northern Inyo Healthcare District’s supportive and knowledgeable Wound Care team is dedicated to treating acute and chronic, non-healing wounds. Our team-based approach provides specialized care to help facilitate healing for those patients needing that extra boost on their way back to living as normal, healthy and pain-free life as possible.

Conditions We Treat

• Chemical Wounds/Burns: A chemical burn occurs when your skin or eyes come into contact with an irritant, such as an acid or a base. Chemical burns are also known as caustic burns. They may cause a reaction on your skin or within your body. These burns can affect your internal organs if chemicals are swallowed.
• Diabetic Foot Problems: In people with diabetes, high blood glucose can cause two complications — both of which can result in foot problems. You may have one or both of these:
  • Nerve Damage (Neuropathy): High blood sugar can lead to nerve damage called diabetic neuropathy. It can cause painful symptoms — tingling, aching, or throbbing — but it can also reduce sensation. You can prevent it or slow its progress by keeping your blood sugar as close to your target range as possible and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
  • Poor Circulation: High blood glucose can damage your blood vessels and reduce blood flow to your feet. This means that injuries take longer to heal. Over time, poor circulation in your feet can even change the shape of your feet and toes.
• Lymphedema: Inflammation control is vital for effective and efficient wound healing. Reducing local edema (swelling) leads to decreased compression on vessels surrounding the wound, which improves tissue perfusion (ability of blood to reach the injured tissue), nutrition delivery, and uptake of oxygen. This allows the wound to better resist bacteria and other microbes and avoid infection. Since inflammation and edema contribute to wound pain, any measures to reduce these will also provide relief. Compression bandages, garments, socks, and wraps are all effective means of establishing the appropriate gradient of compression around a wound to improve its ability to heal. Our Certified Lymphedema Therapist can evaluate your need for compression, the optimal type of compression to use, how often to use it, and how to care for these sorts of garments.
• Skin Tears: A skin tear is a traumatic wound caused by mechanical forces, including removal of adhesives. Severity may vary by depth (not extending through the subcutaneous layer). They most often happen on the arms or legs. Skin tears are most common in newborns, the elderly and people who are chronically ill. Long-term use of steroids can also increase the risk.
• Venous Ulcer: Venous ulcers(open sores) can occur when the veins in your legs do not push blood back up to your heart as well as they should. Blood backs up in the veins, building up pressure. If not treated, increased pressure and excess fluid in the affected area can cause an open sore to form. Most venous ulcers occur on the leg, above the ankle. This type of wound can be slow to heal.

Treatments

• Evaluation of Non Healing Wounds
• Diabetic Foot Ulcers
• Chronic Ulcers
• Vascular Ulcers
• Debridement
• Negative Pressure Wound Therapy: A method of drawing out fluid and infection from a wound to help it heal
• Biological Skin Substitutes: Cell therapy is used to “jumpstart” a stalled wound
• Nutrition for Wound Healing
• Wound Care After An Injury
• Rehabilitation Therapy for Wound Healing @ NIHD: Our Rehabilitation Services Team, particularly the physical and occupational therapies, are dedicated partners in Wound Care. Particularly for venous stasis ulcers, regular exercise, walking, and tissue flexibility is imperative for the maintenance of normal venous return and stimulation the healing mechanisms of the body. Good overall strength and balance contribute to improved safety and decreased fall risk, which can reduce the risk of developing a wound on support surfaces or sustaining a traumatic wound from a fall. Please discuss if Rehabilitation Services is right for you with your Primary Care Physician.

Please contact your Primary Care Physician to be referred to Wound Care. To reach our Wound Care Department with questions, please call (760) 873-2619.