Hard-to-Heal Wounds

Advanced Treatment for Hard-to-Heal Wounds

The Wound Healing Center at South Texas Health System®

Edinburg provides outpatient healing services for chronic wounds.

The human body has an amazing ability to heal itself. Usually, wounds heal without medical intervention, but sometimes people develop stubborn wounds that won’t heal. When a cut, blister, burn, or puncture becomes chronic, it’s time to consult a wound care specialist. The Wound Healing Center at South Texas Health System Edinburg can help. Specially trained personnel provide patients with comprehensive care for all types of wounds.

Understanding Chronic Wounds

Chronic wounds caused by diabetes, poor circulation, or other conditions affect more than 6.5 million Americans every year, according to the National Institutes of Health. Doctors consider a wound to be chronic if it doesn’t heal within eight weeks. Wounds like these can be associated with complications from a wide range of disorders and injuries, including:

• Abscess wounds

• Burns

• Cancer

• Insect bites

• Lower extremity swelling

• Slow-to-heal surgical wounds

• Trauma

• Ulcers (diabetic, pressure, venous stasis, arterial)

Comprehensive Specialized Care

The Center’s multidisciplinary team takes a comprehensive approach to wound care, including nutritional assessment and intervention, infection assessment and intervention, and pain assessment and medication. Each patient receives an individualized treatment plan and, when needed, the team will collaborate with other healthcare professionals, including physical therapists and podiatrists, to determine the best course of action for each patient. The Center also offers lifelong follow-up care to help ensure recurrences are kept at a minimum.

In addition, the highly trained team at The Wound Healing Center offers specialized care that a primary care provider typically can’t provide, including:

• Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT)

• Advanced dressing technologies

• Negative pressure wound therapy

• Bioengineered skin substitutes

Understanding Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

For certain problem wounds, hyperbaric oxygen therapy may be considered as a treatment. Patients are placed in a chamber at an increased atmospheric pressure filled with pure oxygen. This dramatically increases the blood’s ability to deliver oxygen to wounds, white blood cell activity, and blood vessel formation at the wound site. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy helps decrease inflammation and kill bacteria. It also helps to make antibiotics work better, release new cells and growth factors to repair tissue and speed healing.

In addition to a specialized multidisciplinary team and advanced wound-care technology and equipment, The Wound Healing Center at South Texas Health System Edinburg features private treatment rooms.