Reducing the Risk of Wounds

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Most people will heal from an incidental cut or sore without too much consequence. However, if a person does not heal well, or cannot relieve pressure from an area of their body, they may develop a more serious wound.

Like falls, wounds can result in serious health consequences and reduced quality of life for the person experiencing them, increased burden of care on loved ones, increased need to return to a hospital and/or nursing facility for on-going care, and increased cost to the healthcare system. 

If a wound becomes what we call an "ulcer," it can be extremely difficult to heal and require specialist intervention and big changes to a person's way of doing their daily activities. If a person has a condition, such as diabetes, that slows wound healing the complications are more difficult. Finally, if the wound has occurred in an area that is hard for the person to keep clean, the risk of infection increases, too, along with all of the related consequences. 

Here are some numbers:

• If left until an ulcer develops, the costs [for treatment] increase significantly over the costs for prevention. The total direct-care cost of diabetic foot ulcers to the Canadian health-care system was determined by Hopkins et al. to be $547 million (2011 dollars), with an average cost per case at $21,371. If the wound becomes chronic, the cost over three years climbs to $52,360.

• Personal and societal costs are significant as well. In a study reported by Hopkins et al., where patients with diabetic foot ulcers were followed for three years, the mortality rate was  26.4%. When a diabetic foot ulcer leads to an amputation, the mortality rate jumps to about 50% at five years.

Source: The Burden of Wounds in Canada

At the bottom of this page is an excellent and comprehensive Handbook called Preventing and Caring for Your Wounds at Home from the WoundsCanada.ca website. 

Fair warning, they do a very good job of illustrating different types of wounds. 

OTs and other healthcare providers can help you further by working with you to integrate wound care and wound prevention routines into your daily routines, supporting you with recommendations on equipment, adaptive aids, and functional modifications to reduce wound risk or facilitate healing of current wounds, and similar. 

The Tools & Tips document is also a good resource for ideas to reduce your wound risk, such as long-handled inspection mirrors to see the parts of your body you can't such as the soles of your feet or your tailbone.