Chemical Debridement in home care to achieve wound bed preparation to commence healing – a cohort study in the Netherlands

Introduction: To achieve proper wound healing, wound bed preparation in the early stages of a non-healing wound is vital. Debridement is a part of that wound bed preparation. However, within homecare settings for wound care the resources for debridement are limited. The standard method of debridement needs a certain degree of training and understanding. With the introduction of Topical Desiccating agent (TDA) as a chemical debridement less training is needed and may be a good addition to the wound care toolkit of the home care nurse.   Methods:In the Netherlands, a home care group dedicated to wound care has treated 80 patietns with TDA. This home care group also owns a vast database of wounds treated, over 13 000 documented cases. The group treated with TDA is compared to the database information to assess wound healing. Results:In the first analysis 52 patients are assessed and compared. The data show a stronger decrease in wound size from 11.3 cm to 2.3 cm in 3 weeks treated with TDA compared to 10,3 cm to 11,3 cm in 3 weeks in the untreated group. The data also shows decrease in exudate and increase in granulation tissue in the group treated with TDA compared to the untreated group. Discussion: The introduction of TDA in home care shows significant differences to the standard approach of wound care. The use of TDA could increase wound bed preparation efficiency. In the database the overall time and costs used for treating a wound is also documented and this analysis is pending for comparison to the TDA cohort.References: