Medications and Wound Management

The effects of medications on the management of wounds is often overlooked in the development of an appropriate wound managment strategy.

The inclusion of a medication review is recommended since a large number of medications taken for co-morbidities can markedly impact on the healing rates of wounds.

This review must include over-the-counter remedies, complementary and nutritional supplements, because these agents, like prescribed medications, can contribute positively or negatively to wound care.

The amount of information to collate and interpret is vast and this article attempts a beginning that will hopefully identify areas for concern and improvement in the area of medication related issues for wound management.

Geoff Sussman has provided a great insight through research into these matters and is used extensively by this author as part of an overall review.

In addition to reviewing the literature it is hoped that a clinical tool can be developed that will make the task of organising a specific wound management plan more relevant.

It is proposed that a good starting point is a review of the phases of wound healing. Interference with or enhancement of any or all of these aspects to wound healing is important in the classification of medications.

First Phase: Inflammatory

Second Phase: Proliferative

Third Phase: Remodelling

Review these phases at: http://www.medicaledu.com/phases.htm

In the first phase the use of:

Anti-inflammatories could reduce the inflammatory response and slow healing

Anticoagulants could reduce the haemostatic effects required

Vasodilators might impact of the vasoconstriction seen in this phase.