Since the beginning of time, people have been burdened by wounds. Today there is still much to discover in this field. From researching their healing processes, the effects of biofilm to evaluating treatment methods and developing new therapies, such as negative pressure wound therapy – we are always discovering new factors that make us better understand wounds and answer open questions.
Do you know how often contact occurs during the care and treatment of patients? Researchers have found out that, on average, this takes place every four seconds! That would be two contacts in the time it takes you to read this text. Every two minutes, a risk of infection arises from such contacts. On the following pages, in the cover story of our review, you can read how scientists arrived at this conclusion and how you can prevent infections with proper hand hygiene.
Dr Lauri Hicks from the CDC has dedicated her career to improving antibiotic use. She explains why antimicrobial stewardship is so critical.
This system helps to separate wound infections into the upper, or localised environment, versus the inner, deep, lower compartment.
Removal of slough and other devitalized tissue is an important step in biofilm-based wound care and wound bed preparation.
Although biofilms are very heterogeneous and can vary greatly in composition and structure, there is a characteristic scheme for the sequence of biofilm formation.
The Five Moments for Hand Hygiene has emerged from the WHO Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care (Advanced Draft) to add value to any hand hygiene improvement strategy.
