Wound assessment and dressing selection

An acute wound should first be cleaned and decontaminated, then if necessary, the wound edges should be held together by sutures or tape, and finally an appropriate dressing applied. The difficulty in the management of any chronic wound is that there is always an underlying physiological cause of the wound that must be treated. Wound assessment includes wound location, size and depth. A thorough wound assessment also evaluates the wound bed, the quality and amount of exudate, the presence or absence of infection. Wounds are dynamic and as such the choice of dressing will change as the wound changes. Choice of dressing is based on three simple rules, 'C D E', which indicate the three major aspects of any wound: colour, depth and exudate. Also consider the presence of infection, the peri-wound tissue, the need to apply graduated compression, the fragility of the skin and any medical condition that may impact on the dressing choice. (author abstract)