Wound Care
Treatment for Acute & Non-Healing Wounds
If your child has large, deep, or complex wounds that are not healing as they should, our pediatric wound care specialists at Manning Family Children’s are here to help with compassionate treatment. Our clinic is staffed by a multidisciplinary team that includes wound care certified advance practice providers and registered nurses, who work alongside various pediatric surgeons. Our team’s goal is to resolve wounds and prevent prolonged admissions to the hospital while educating both parents and patients on the wound healing process.
Types of wounds we treat
We offer individualized care for children with wounds like:
- Pressure Injuries (also called bed sores, these are open skin wounds that result from prolonged periods of inactivity)
- Traumatic Wounds (caused by accidents, bites, and other traumatic injuries)
- Non-healing Surgical Wounds (from incisions or cuts made during surgical procedures including but not limited to surgical incision dehiscence, failed flaps, abscesses post I&D)
- Severe Moisture Related Skin Breakdown (open wounds caused by prolonged exposure to moisture including diaper dermatitis, skin wounds around gastrostomy sites, and wounds around colostomy/jejunostomy stomas)
services we offer
Whether our team sees your child as an inpatient in the hospital or for outpatient appointments, our goal is to prevent infections, promote healing, and to reduce any associated pain while working to diminish any resulting scars. Depending on the wound type, children may require antibiotic medication to treat or prevent infections and pain medication if their wound is causing discomfort.
Wound care is individualized for each patient we treat, but wounds typically heal in a predictable way and treatment typically involves the following steps:
- Irrigation: Wounds need moisture for better healing, and irrigation involves the steady flow of a saline solution to hydrate it and remove any lingering debris.
- Cleaning: Debris, dried blood, and dead skin is carefully and gently removed using moistened gauze pads.
- Dressing: Our team works hard to choose the gentlest and most effective dressing to keep the wound protected and keep germs out. Dressing also help absorb fluid draining from the wound that could damage the skin around it. Dressings may mean regularly applying fresh bandages, leaving a deeper wound open and packing it with a specialty wound dressing of use of Negative Pressure Wound Therapy to help it heal from the inside out.
Changing dressings at home
Keeping your child’s wound clean will help it heal, and your child’s doctor or nurse will show you how to change the wound dressing if they are an outpatient. They will let you know how long the dressing should be left on and which wound care products to use. You might need to purchase new supplies to dress wounds, such as non-sterile gloves, adhesive remover, gauze pads, saline solution, scissors, tape, and so on. It’s important to keep your hands clean and put on gloves if recommended when changing old dressings.
To reduce the appearance of scars, keep the wound out of the sun, which may take 3 months to a year for proper healing. Once the wound has healed, use high-SPF sunscreen on the wound. Keep the wound at a stable temperature and try to prevent it from getting too hot or cold.
Factors that can delay wound healing
Sometimes bacteria (germs) cause contamination that make wounds slower to heal, especially in the case of open wounds. A contaminated wound in which bacteria spreads is called an infection, which can invade the soft tissues and prevent healing. Wound healing may be further delayed by poor nutrition, specific diseases (like diabetes or kidney disease), certain treatments (such as chemotherapy or radiation), or obesity.
Refer a Patient
Please fax the following information to 504.894.5238:
- Signed and dated order for “Wound Care Evaluation and Treatment,” including an ICD-10 code
- Pertinent clinical information about the wound, a history and physical and any related testing
- Demographic information
- Insurance information
