Achieving effective patient outcomes with PolyMem Silicone Border.

Clinicians are under increasing pressure to provide high-quality patient outcomes at a reduced cost. Increasingly, community staff must acquire knowledge on advanced wound care products to cope with the growing caseload demands. This article describes the use of PolyMem® dressings to reduce pain, inflammation, oedema and bruising and their ability to debride and absorb exudate while providing an optimum healing environment.

Using larval therapy in the community setting.

The NHS is driven by quality targets that permeate all specialties and care settings, and by the need for safety, efficiency and patient-centred care. Efficient care pathways need to be safe and indicated, and should offer measurable advantages and patient benefits as well as giving a treatment end point. Complex wounds require very careful management from the multidisciplinary team and present clinicians with intricate challenges to promote cost-effective wound healing.

Larval therapy applied to a large arterial ulcer: an effective outcome.

This article is a review of larval therapy and includes a case study that uses larval therapy in the treatment of complex leg ulcer wounds. Complex wounds require careful management from the multidisciplinary team and present clinicians with intricate challenges to save the limb. Wound-bed preparation and debridement needs to be as effective and non-traumatic as possible for the patient.

Evaluation of patient outcomes: pressure ulcer prevention mattresses.

This article reports the findings of a small evaluation audit which compares the Dyna-Form Mercury Advance Mattress to that of the Softform Premier Active Mattress (a foam mattress with dynamic underlay). A small group of patients with similar co-morbidities who were an emergency admission were recruited to an evaluation audit. Their median age and Waterlow score indicated that these patients were at high risk of pressure ulcer development.

An evaluation of serum albumin and the sub-scores of the Waterlow score in pressure ulcer risk assessment.

Background: From previous work serum albumin is predictive of pressure ulcers over and above the Waterlow score. However the sub-scores of the Waterlow score were not available, and the accuracy of calculation of the total score was poor. This study has used sub-scores and is an order of magnitude larger.