The Prevalence, Aetiology and Healing Trajectories of Hard-To-Heal Wounds in South Africa.

The incidence of hard-to-heal wounds is rising globally with adverse effects on quality of life. Yet, there is no reliable data available on hard-to-heal wound prevalence, aetiology, and outcomes in a low-to-middle income country without improper care being a confounding factor. In this retrospective study of 460 individuals (876 wounds) that received appropriate standard of care at a specialised wound care clinic in the Kwazulu-Natal province of South Africa, acute/traumatic wounds were most prevalent (230/460, 50%) followed by ulcers (173/460, 38%) (DFUs 13%, VLUs 12%, PIs 11%, MLUs < 1%, ALUs < 1%) and atypical wounds (55/460, 12%) (atypical wounds 8%, vectors 4%).

Delayed Immune Response Upon Injury in Diabetic Wounds Impedes Healing.

Background: Chronic wounds are a severe complication of diabetes. Dysregulated inflammatory signalling is thought to underly the poor healing outcomes. Yet, there is little information available on the acute response following injury and its impact on healing.

Dysregulated healing responses in diabetic wounds occur in the early stages postinjury.

Chronic wounds are a serious and debilitating complication of diabetes. A better understanding of the dysregulated healing responses following injury will provide insight into the optimal time frame for therapeutic intervention. In this study, a direct comparison was done between the healing dynamics and the proteome of acute and obese diabetic wounds on days 2 and 7 following injury.