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Case Study/Series
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The use of iodine solution on chronic difficult to heal wounds First Author: Kevin Woo Authors: Kevin Woo, Persia Etemadi, Sunita Coelho, Gary Sibbald Preparing the wound bed is the gold standard for optimal healing of chronic wounds: treat the cause, address patient centered concerns and maintain moist interactive healing. However, this paradigm does not apply to wounds where the cause cannot be treated or to patients who are not able to adhere to the treatment plan due to personal /system/ cost issues. Moist interactive healing is therefore contraindicated in these wounds that are often referred to as non-healable or maintenance wounds. Instead, local wound care involves conservative debridement, moisture reduction, and bioburden management. These wounds are best treated with antiseptics because the decrease in bacterial burden and moisture reduction are more important than tissue toxicity. Povidone-iodine (PVP-I) is one of the most commonly used broad spectrum topical iodophor microbicide that is active against both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and viruses in vitro. Purpose: The purpose of this pilot study is to assess the effectiveness of topical PVP-I as a topical antimicrobial agent to manage maintenance or non-healable wounds. Method: We conducted a retrospective chart review of 30 patients (17 male and 13 female) with a total number of 42 wounds. Results: Of all the wounds reviewed, 28% achieved complete closure plus 45% had reduced wound size with topical PVP-I. The surface areas of the wounds were significantly smaller than the initial measurements in this cohort of patients with chronic wounds (Wilcoxon signed ranks test, p=0.011). |
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