Organization of wound healing services: the Danish experience and the importance of surgery.

Abstract

Thomas K. Hunt is a general surgeon. Through his basic wound healing research and clinical work with wound patients he has been a great inspiration for my work in wound healing. In order to fulfill Dr. Hunt's vision, the clinical wound healing arena must be organized in an optimal way, and this article focuses on different options. Multidisciplinary wound care teams or centers focusing on all types of problem wounds have proved to be most effective at providing treatment and care for patients with problem wounds. The ultimate model is an outpatient clinic and an inpatient ward joined within a departmental structure, which represents an integrated part of an accepted national expert program on wound healing. Different types of center models can be established with different advantages and disadvantages. Currently, the wound care arena is being organized in Denmark and the model is described in this article. Of all specialties involved in treatment of wounds, surgery is of vital importance. "Wound healing is the keystone on which surgery is founded" (Thomas K. Hunt). This has long been understood in relation to acute wounds, while the importance of surgery in the treatment of chronic wounds has been less widely recognized. Surgical procedures directly related to the wound consist of debridement of all types of problem wounds and, in more specialized procedures such as skin transplantation, different types of flap constructions, bone surgery, and tendo-Achilles lengthening. Arterial reconstruction is a type of surgery that indirectly, through improved tissue perfusion, improves healing of problem wounds. This study concludes that multidisciplinary specialized wound healing concepts integrated into the national health care system as accepted expert functions would be the ideal way to organize wound healing to best benefit patients and society. Emphasis is on the importance of surgical procedures in wound healing and care. The models described can be applied with minor adjustments to both industrialized and developing countries.