WOUND MANAGEMENT
that address chronic wounds. Treatments that improve healing for these wounds are the most impactful given the significant debilitating effect non-healing wounds can have on patients and the huge direct and indirect costs that healthcare providers incur treating them. Chronic wounds present unique challenges that clinicians and academics have identified and sought to address over the years. Wounds of this nature require more careful management due to additional complexities in managing biofilm, modulating matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and countering antibiotic resistant infections like MRSA. The latter of these issues is particularly significant as antibiotic resistance (AMR) poses global health challenges.15 The UK Government has published a five-year national action plan for tackling antimicrobial resistance, which contains at its centre an emphasis on reducing the number of infections to minimise the use of antimicrobials and consequently prevent resistance building up.16
Managing wounds
effectively to prevent them becoming chronic, and dealing with them quickly when they do become chronic, is one way wound care professionals can actively play a part in reducing AMR and improving patient outcomes.
As our understanding has improved and cases become more complex, traditional widespread dressings to manage bioburden like silver and iodine materials have side effects that make them unsuitable for some patients or come with conditions that limit their effective use, especially over prolonged periods. Activated carbon cloth is one alternative technology that has many of the benefits of other products like hydrocolloids and NPWT but without their disadvantages17 and is safe for pregnant women and children.
Chemviron specialises in developing innovative materials and technologies for use in healthcare through the Zorflex brand. This includes activated carbon dressings which are particularly effective for chronic non- healing wounds that fail to respond to other
Chronic wounds present significant challenges due to the additional complexities in managing biofilm and countering infections such as MRSA.
treatments like those set out by Wiegand et al.18
Activated carbon has naturally occurring
van der Waals forces which attract molecules and bacteria away from the wound to the dressing, where they become trapped on the surface and in its micropores and immobilised.
As the material is conductive, it helps to restore the body’s natural transepithelial potential to aid healing – well identified in the literature as being key to improving outcomes. As it is naturally antimicrobial, activated carbon cloth is capable of reducing levels of MRSA without the use of antibiotics,
making it an effective option for clinicians looking for a solution that doesn’t run the risk of patients developing AMR. Careful wound management involves optimising toptimising matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) levels; activated carbon has been proven to reduce excess protease activity to significantly improve the wound trajectory as seen in figure 1.19
Best practice
and helpful information is often shared between practitioners on issues like MMP management, helping inform practice and improve wound care management.20 Another more recent development that
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