Quick Facts - Complex Wound Management 2021

Medicare estimates that more than 8 million Americans have chronic or complex wounds, which diminish quality of life, raise mortality risk, and incur a heavy financial burden. With the aging of the global population, non-healing wounds are increasingly common worldwide and are prone to recurrence. Indeed, lower extremity wound recurrence is so prevalent that wound closure may be considered remission rather than true healing. Treatment of complex wounds may include specialized dressings, negative pressure wound therapy, offloading, application of growth factors, and compression therapy, depending on wound type and etiology. Rigorous treatment of comorbidities, including vascular disease, diabetes, and hypertension, is essential to prevent wound recurrence. Health care professionals who treat patients with chronic or complex wounds will find this fact sheet useful. The following topics are covered:Epidemiology of complex woundsPathophysiology of non-healing woundsRisk factors for chronic woundsTIMERS framework for wound managementWound recurrenceTreatment of complex wounds