Wound assessment is essential to manage wound care. The Wound Trend Scale (WTS) is a paper-and-pen instrument comprised of 14 parameters designed to guide assessment of findings relevant to lower leg ulcer management and includes an infection screen and cues for physician consultation. To determine its clinical utility, predictive value, and reliability, data were retrospectively analyzed from a random sampling of medical records of patients seen at a Foot and Leg Clinic between January 1, 2007 and December 31, 2008.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOffloading heel ulcers is a challenging task because strategies deemed to be most optimal from a medical perspective may be unacceptable to patients. Observed adverse dressing events and problems with offloading devices led to a pilot study and subsequent change in practice at the authors' Foot and Leg Ulcer Clinic. Starting in 2004, patients requiring offloading received a nonremovable padded heel dressing (PHD) that was changed twice a week by the visiting nurse.
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