Wound Care
Wound Care Services
Wound care is important after plastic surgery because as many so easily forget as we are enamored with the results: this was still full blown surgery. You need to know what to do when it comes to your incisions and wounds. Not every patient we see needs wound care, but a lot do and are left at a loss in trying to figure out how to heal their elective wounds. And going to public wound care centers and hospitals proves to be a disappointment as most emergency facilities are undertrained in on acute wounds. There is a diminished knowledge of how to care for serums, necrosis of any kind, or splitting stitches, not to mention the exuberant costs that most insurance companies won’t cover.
What is an Acute Wound?
An acute wound is an injury to the skin that occurs suddenly rather than over time. It heals at a predictable and expected rate according to the normal wound healing process. But, let’s keep in mind— there is nothing normal about plastic surgery or liposuction. The unnatural trauma executed on a body heals at a rate OR presents furthered complications based upon someone’s pre-existing foundational health. How you were before surgery dictates how your body heals as it struggles to return to homeostasis. Naturally? Acute wounds can happen anywhere on the body and vary from superficial scratches to deep wounds damaging blood vessels, nerves, muscles or other body parts. After plastic surgery? The things you eat, how you compress, how wet your wound gets when you shower, how you sleep, your posture throughout the day all play a role in your body’s ability to heal your wounds, especially when the internal wounds cover a larger surface space than the external wounds you actually see.
What is a Chronic or Hard to Heal Wound?
A chronic wound develops when any acute wound fails to heal in the expected time frame for that type of wound, which might be a couple of weeks or up to six months depending on severity.
What Causes a Chronic or Hard to Heal Wound?
There are many causes for chronic wounds. Most common causes include: the wrong dressing routine, too much moisture or not enough around the wound, diabetes, poor circulation, too much pressure in a localized area, low nutrition in your diet, and surgical wounds.
What are the Most Common Types of Wounds after Plastic Surgery?
Arterial Ulcers can occur from hypertension, atherosclerosis (plugging) and thrombosis (clotting), where the reduced blood supply leads to an ischemic state
Venous Ulcers account for more than half of ulcer cases, especially in the lower limbs (mainly the legs) as associated with deep vein thrombosis, varicose veins and venous hypertension. Venous stasis leads to venous ulcers, where the blood fails to circulate normally.
Diabetic Ulcers are a common complication in uncontrolled diabetes, resulting in impaired immune function, hyperglycemia, ischemia (due to poor blood circulation), PAD/PVD (peripheral arterial disease) and neuropathy (nerve damage), which eventually lead to breakage of skin and ulceration.
Infectious Wounds can be bacterial, fungal or viral. If the cause of the infection is not treated with the proper medication, the wound will not heal properly in the expected time.
Necrosis is the death of most or all of the cells in an organ or tissue due to disease, injury, or failure of the blood supply; any cell type can be necrotic but the most common after plastic surgery are skin and fat cells.
Serums air pockets where something once was that prevents a wound from collapsing allowing fluid to now refill this space. These are typically a result of poor compression.
Surgical Wounds occur when the blood supply to the surgery area is accidentally damaged &/or if wound care was inadequate causing them to expand or deepen.
Inflammatory Wounds may develop as a manifestation of a variety of different diseases or may result from some non-disease phenomena. Most of these wounds correlate with autoimmune or connective tissue overgrowth
How are Chronic or Hard to Heal Wounds Treated?
With Taime Out Wound Care we have a highly qualified and well-respected team of wound care nurses that specialize in post-operative wounds, assessing them on a case-by-case basis instead of treating you like a number thus determining the best course of action. This may include (but is not limited to):
- Treatment for the wound
- Education and follow up
- Virtual follow ups
- A medical supply list
- Guided instructions on caring for your wound until it heals properly
- Creating commentary to give to your local PCP
Identifying & generating lifestyle changes to facilitate better wound healing
What problems can occur if a chronic wound goes untreated?
It honestly depends on the wound. If left untreated, extreme a chronic wounds can lead to gangrene, infection, or worse, amputation. Less chronic wounds that just piss you off because they are taking their sweet time in healing if left untreated will heal with a deformity or less than desirable aesthetic results. These types of wounds that can be addressed by adjusting your compression routine, your diet, what medical materials you are using to cover your wound that go without the right attention often lead to surgical revisions and extra rounds of liposuction to correct OR thousands of dollars extra to correct non-surgically.
How are Chronic or Hard to Heal Wounds Treated?
With Taime Out Wound Care we have a highly qualified and well-respected team of wound care nurses that specialize in post-operative wounds, assessing them on a case-by-case basis instead of treating you like a number thus determining the best course of action. This may include (but is not limited to):
- Treatment for the wound
- Education and follow up
- Virtual follow ups
- A medical supply list
- Guided instructions on caring for your wound until it heals properly
- Creating commentary to give to your local PCP
Identifying & generating lifestyle changes to facilitate better wound healing
What problems can occur if a chronic wound goes untreated?
It honestly depends on the wound. If left untreated, extreme a chronic wounds can lead to gangrene, infection, or worse, amputation. Less chronic wounds that just piss you off because they are taking their sweet time in healing if left untreated will heal with a deformity or less than desirable aesthetic results. These types of wounds that can be addressed by adjusting your compression routine, your diet, what medical materials you are using to cover your wound that go without the right attention often lead to surgical revisions and extra rounds of liposuction to correct OR thousands of dollars extra to correct non-surgically.
When should a wound care nurse be consulted?
I know that the rule of thumb typically states that when in doubt, contact your surgeon. But here’s the thing. Your surgeon doesn’t know postOp care, and are even less informed on wound care. Wound care is a specialized niched form of medicine that takes years to acquire all of the necessary information to help someone heal properly. Surgeons, ER or OR staff, and even general nurses are introduced to this information but don’t have the full wherewithal to give accurate current wound advice. Most advice is dated. Here are some good indications whether the wound is serious or not:
- Any sort of pus or cloudy, creamy fluid
- Increasing redness around the wound
- Increased pain or swelling past 2 weeks postOp
- The wound won’t stop bleeding
- Fever past the first 7 days
- Wound hasn’t healed in 10 days
- Numbness
- The wound is deep, and you have not had a tetanus shot in the last 5 years
- You develop a seroma that wasn’t there weeks after the surgery
- Your wound develops a foul odor
- Your wound is radiating shooting pains
- Your skin is turning black
- Your bruise is getting darker (this is typically a lipo burn, not a bruise)
We offer comprehensive in-person and virtual services. Select from one of the options below:
