favorite wound products

Specialties Wound

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Say, hypothetically you have all the money in the world at your disposal.:chuckle

Patient is 90 yr old NIDDM patient with dementia and constant oozing of stool. Her status is palliative, and decision has been made to do no aggressive forms of treatment. Diet is tollerated very well, but is limited because of NIDDM status, swallowing difficulties and various other feeding complications. Has indwelling cathether and is bedbound with multiple contractures of the legs. Stage IV ulcer to coccyx has been present since 1999 (!). Multiple products have been used over the years, multiple clinical nurse speciallists and infection control specialist have been consulted. Pt had been on VAC therapy for 6 mo, but this lead to a deepening of the wound bed, and was d/c'd in 2001.

How do you propose to treat this client?:)

Hoolahan,

You are just great at finding helpful websites.

Excellent! thanks hoolihan. Never heard of Silveron stuff before & I have a younger family member who has a problem with a recurring stasis ulcer, so I'll forward the info to them.

Specializes in MDS Coordinator, CWS.

I get alot of eviscerated abdominal wounds, I have tried alot of products, but Silverlon packing strips healed these wounds up in a matter of days. I also use it on superficial Category II -III skin tears(without a flap) and Stage II - IV pressure ulcers. I work in a facility with a BIG budget and I also order all the wound care products. I went to the Wound and Skin Symposium in Orlando last September, they provided me with a bunch of samples. You can call or write to most companies and they will send you samples to try out.

Specializes in Home Health.

Good Band aid, b/c I have a question. I was sent to watch a CG give wound care, and the product being used on a stage 4 decub was something like Miradex...but I forgot to write the name down to check later, and now I must be spelling it wrong b/c I can't find it in my searches. I am not even sure if it is a debrider or not. It was a brown clearish gel, and I know the CM has the powder version of this on order.

Anyone know what I am talking about?? I hate when we can't look stuff up on-line at work. And I didn't have one spare second to stop home today, I was all over the place. (Went to a house that was so freakin' huge, I had to call from my cell phone and say which driveway do I go to in order to get to the pt inside the castle! I could have lived comfortably in the pool house!)

Mepilex? Mepitel? All the brands from molynike (Í know spelling is very wrong) start with Me...

I 've seen Enterostomal Nurses use powders like that for a patient with a very challenging stoma with +++loose stool. Dried it up real fast into a gel. Maybe it was a product originally meant for that? Could be wrong.

Specializes in Home Health.

http://woundcare.org/newsvol2n2/pr1.htm

I found it!! It is multidex gel, and also comes in a powder form. This stuff looks like the ticket adri!! It was a lot to cut-n-paste, and had lots of pics that I didn't think would come out, but are worth a look-see, some amazing healing w this stuff. Check it out!!

Hi,

Nice discussion. I'm always so happy to find people who like to talk shop.

There's a lot of good advice here, but in a (hopefully) brief post, I'd like to add a few things.

First off to echo a few others comments... It might be best to focus less on the wound dressing and look to identify why this woman's wound isn't healing.

blood studies:

hemoglobin/hematocrit greater then, say.. 12/35

hemoglobin A1c less then ~ 7.5

albumin greater then 3.2

prealbumin greater than 20

weight gain versus loss

Consistent adequate pressure relief. Research (Ferrill/Osterweil) has shown that beds have little affect on healing stage IV wounds. Turning the individual side to side (24 hours a day) would ensure pressure relief to a sacral wound.

If bone is exposed, some would argue that there is osteomylitis. Infected bone will delay healing.

There has been significant research lately on the healing process and the wound enviroment. Things like biofilms, MMP's and prolonged inflammation are now leading to new treatment modalities.

Having said that, I agree with what's already been said. For a 90 year old requiring palliative care, keep it simple and comfortable. In the meantime, don't lose interest in curing, best though, find the cause.

Just like the old story about the person hiking along a riverbank... see's someone drowning, floating down the river. The hiker rescues the suffering individual by extending a tree branch into the water. The hiker then proceeds along then river until they spot someone else drowning! They quickly use another tree branch to rescue the person. This occurs one more time until FINALLY, the hiker decides to go upstream and find out why people are falling in the river.

All the best.

Rand

Had another CNS in to look at wound. Suggested trial of flagyl/hydrogel to wound base -- perhaps wound is bordering on infection verses being clean. Tunnelling seems to be getting deeper. Will update you on results.

Hope I didn't squelch the discussion... :rolleyes:

Specializes in Home Health.

Nope, I don't think so, sometimes they just die off, but we'll wait and see what adri said is happening now....

Stick around Rand. The specialty forums wax and wane like this.

UPDATE!!!

Finished course of flagyl. Looking good. Allevyn did not seem to be agreeing with the periwound area. Have decided with my buddy CNS to return to the basics and try something low-tec. New regime. Pack wound base and undermining loosely with saline and hydrogel soaked guaze (4X4), cover with ABD pad. Fix in to place with 2, 10 X 28 opsites. Change OD PRN.

My little ladies wound is all cleaned up! It looks fabulous. Tunnelling is still present but wound base suddenly looks like its granulating. WooHoo!

Good, I'm really sick of having to justify the $$ spent on this poor little thing to my boss.

P.S. Sorry Rand, I wasn't ignoring you. I read your post and agree. I have been a big advocate (well that's not quite what they call me :p) for having this lady turned side-to-side q2h.

Although because of her status, we don't subject her to a lot of bloodwork. I am certain that her albumen level has really improved since adding a powdered protein supplement to her diet. She does love to eat and gets a lot of pleasure from it.

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