Wound Healing Case

Introduction Wound care involves a lot of physiological and immunologic processes to achieve optimal wound healing, as well as several physical and social factors that may also help to successfully achieve wound closure. In this case study, Carlton, a six-year-old, got a deep cut on his foot after he stepped on the sharp edge of a shell while running along the shoreline. The foot of the six-year-old boy looked even worse a day after her mother had washed it. The gash had turned red and very painful and his injured foot appeared swollen and was warm to touch. Since Carlton’s mother realized that the foot was not getting any better, she put some gauze over the wound as she prepared to take the boy to a local community health clinic.
Physiological Mechanism Involved A physiological mechanism essentially caused the wound to turn red, hot, swollen, and painful. Vascular response and inflammatory response largely contributed to the redness, increased heat, swelling, and pain. Increased blood flow into the inflamed site led to the redness …show more content…
Nutrition deficiencies would impede the processes that enable normal progression through all the stages of wound healing (Bauer, Isenring, & Waterhouse, 2013). It is extremely important that Carlton’s mother makes sure that her six-year-old maintains an adequate nutrition, which will be essential for optimal healing of his wound. The boy might experience an increase of infection rates and low tensile strength on his wound if he is malnourished. The wound might also become chronic and nonhealing due to delayed healing. Chronic wounds have been a major contributing factor to mortality and morbidity among patients. (Ziegler, 1997). Nutrition therapies used today should aim at rectifying nutrition deficiencies that often contribute to delay in wound healing. Malnutrition needs also to be considered when exploring treatment options since it is one of the major causes of wound