Our Advanced Wound Healing Clinic

Clinic Philosophy & Practice "Treatment by Intention and Not By Chance"

Chronic, non-healing wounds can destroy an individual's mobility and quality of life and currently affect between three and five million Americans. They present a health problem that can result from diabetes, venous insufficiency and other conditions which can cause a spectrum of issues from discomfort or embarrassment to infection and more serious complications that equally frustrate both patients and medical providers alike.

We are specialists

Causes of a slowing healing wound are as unique as the people who suffer with them. We offer advanced therapies and patient focused algothyrms of care that speed healing and give the patient an opportunity to enjoy life again. Not only do we heal the wound, but prevent it from happening again.

Beginning with a comprehensive evaluation to identify the underlying cause of the wound(s) leading to evidence based approach of treatment closely monitoring the wound and adjusting the course of treatments as needed to improve healing rates and results. Full treatment for lower extremity wounds is available with consultation for all other wounds.

A number of services available include but are not limited to:

• Treatment of chronic wounds including those of diabetic foot ulcers, chronic venous ulcers, arterial ulcer, chronic osteomyelitis with open wounds, radiation-related tissue damage with open wounds, non-healing surgical, traumatic, pressure origin, and wounds of unknown cause.
• Non-invasive testing- Doppler, ultrasound, and radiology
• New and advanced therapies, including research modalities designed to expedite wound closure. Depending on the causes/underlying conditions of non-healing, a variety of advanced treatments are available to speed healing including bioengineered/cell delivery systems/skin substitutes, growth factors -substances that stimulate healing, therapeutic dressing materials and antimicrobial topical therapies
• Advanced diabetic wound/ulcer care
• Surgical procedures for lower extremity wounds
• Ongoing collaboration and communication with referring and attending physicians
• Patient, Family, and Community education and support on wound care

Research

Research is a key component/element of the treatment options available in resolving an acute/longstanding wound(s). Patient may be offered the opportunity to participate in advanced, new, and exciting research focusing on wounds that are difficult to heal. The most appropriate and advanced level of care possible is always provided; research offers new avenues of treatment to those interested in participating in a clinical study/trial.

When examining the history of wound care, you are in a sense examining the history of mankind. Dating back to the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations the art of wound healing flourished with the Greeks and Romans being heavily influenced by these medicines. Unlike many less complex organisms, humans lack the ability to regenerate a lost or damaged limb. In the evolutionary process, we traded the slow biological sophistication to regeneration for relatively simple and more rapid healing. As it was for the people of the ancient worlds, wound care was an indispensable part of life as it is today.

A clay tablet dating back to circa 2200 B.C. and representing one of the oldest medical manuscripts describes for quite the first time the "three healing gestures" which consist of:

1. Washing the wound
2. Making plasters
3. Bandaging the wound

In today's medicine these three gestures are what we would refer to them as interventions.

Ok, so you are wondering what might this review have to do with healing my or anyone else's wound(s). Well throughout the ages, there has been an amazing variety of different methods and substances that have been utilized to treat wounds. With each utilization of these substances and methods it was and is considered an improvement in one of the "three healing gestures" previously mentioned.

In providing care for wounds of the lower extremity at our wound management and healing clinic, we employ a discipline that is focused both upon new advances coupled with tried-and-true techniques proven effective through clinical research, evidence-based medicine and experience. Our clinic's physician(s) and staff remain current on new technologies that are available and those being evaluated in our clinical research program, while equally remembering the basic principles that when utilized appropriately that ultimately can lead to achieving success in healing an individual's wound(s).

I am also quite frequently asked what the difference in care is between other practitioners providing wound care and our clinic and its staff. My answer starts with the philosophy of providing foot health care that serves as the core element when an individual with a lower extremity condition seeks care at the Aung FootHealth Clinics: "A good physician treats the disease; a great physician treats the patient". Simply put, I and my staff treat you a person not as a number or a medical condition. We also employ a number of methods of patient care that are designed to provide care by what I have termed "treatment by intention and not by chance". In doing so, we address the medical condition(s) the patient presents with at our clinic, treating the whole patient, and we begin a preventative care program in which the patient is the center of our multi-disciplinary care team.

Upon presenting to our clinic, you the patient will be examined/evaluated for the lower extremity condition that is requiring care along with any associated conditions (for our diabetic patients their current and past blood sugars levels, any loss of protective sensation or loss of feeling in the extremities, and any vascular complications) that might effect the success of healing your wounds(s).

As an example: "Pain in the chest maybe valued differently-because you know what's in your chest, compared to pain in the foot". If you have diabetes, this comparable pain can become more urgent if left untreated. I/we listen to what I refer to as my "patient's story" that helps to understand what their symptoms are all about, which in turn leads to the direction care to be planned, in a proactive manner to resolve the current condition, while preventing future complications.

Examples of the types of conditions/complications that we will be evaluating and subsequently addressing with the team of medical professionals are listed below and represent our amputation risk-reduction program.

Below are case studies of various wounds and their outcomes. Articles contain graphic photographs of the wound and the healing process.

1. Diabetic Patient Achilles Tendon Wound
2. Great Toe Ulceration
3. AM Xcell Antimicrobial
4. Hallux/Great Toe Joint Bone Infection
5. FV Xcell Antimicrobial Utilization
6. Ulcer Sub 5th Metatarsal Head

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