Wound Assessment Case of the Day
37-year-old white man struck by a car and resulted in a left transfemoral amputation.
- The patient was seen in an outpatient wound clinic for an open wound of the distal posterior stump flap.
- The wound exhibited increased warmth, induration, erythema, pain, and purulent drainage.
- The patient underwent a 1) surgical incision and drainage (I&D) of a wound abscess and 2) was empirically started on cephalexin (ABX) for 10 days while a wound culture was performed.
- The culture ultimately tested positive for bacterial growth.
- The patient was seen for follow-up 14 days later on April 1st.
We all know visual assessment and wound size are important indicators, but do they always tell the whole story? What if you could combine those with physiological documentation? Visual assessment and wound measurement should never be replaced, but when used as an adjunct to other procedures, the Scout quantifies skin temperature changes that can aid trained clinicians in physiological documentation of treatment goals.
In the case outlined above we give you the history, the photographs, wound size (LxW Area), and long-wave infrared images from two separate imaging encounters. When using the Scout as an adjunct to other procedures, the added insight of long-wave infrared provides a physiological view of the wound and surrounding tissue. This allowed the trained clinicians to objectively quantify skin temperature change to aid in the physiological documentation of the success of treatment outcomes, validating the need for another round of antibiotics on April 1st after revealing a +5.0 degree Celsius relative temperature increase. And on April 24th, they validated the positive response from the 2nd round of antibiotics after seeing a 72% decrease in relative temperature (+1.4 degrees Celsius).
The WoundVision Scout is the only solution that provides both wound photography and measurement WITH long-wave infrared imaging for objective and quantitative physiological documentation (1).
Visit woundvision.com/demo to learn more.