It can be argued that the concept of wound bed preparation has been noted ever since the work which was done by Winter in 1962, although at the time it was not recognised that moist wound healing is wound bed preparation in its own right. As scientific research and knowledge of wound care has evolved, such terms as wound bed preparation were ‘coined’ supported by frameworks and theories such as moist wound healing and the TIME principle1, 2. Although these two concepts seem to be the fundamental concepts of the wound bed preparation process, it is imperative that the clinician can interpret the presentation of the wound bed and all the associated challenges, such as biofilms, which can be found on the wound bed.
The accurate interpretation of the wound bed will influence the objectives of treatment and determine dressing selection, which is hugely dependent on the presentation of the wound bed. As supported by Deeth and Grothier3, it is crucial that clinicians are able to identify the tissue type on the wound bed to determine an appropriate management strategy. Therefore, clinicians need to have a significant level of understanding of wound bed assessments. Both acute and chronic wound management involve holistic assessment and on-going evaluations of the wound bed in order to enable positive patient outcomes4.
Wound bed preparation
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