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Wound Care Center
March 26, 2008 |
A wound care center may look like a regular clinic but it has a very specific
purpose. It’s a place where people come to heal. Dr. Robert Casola is a surgeon
and physician at the Wound Care Center at Southwest Florida Regional Medical
Center. He says, “A wound care center is a place where we evaluate and provide
treatment for individuals that have both acute or new or old chronic wounds.”
Dr. Casola says most people believe that once they leave the hospital setting
their wounds are mostly taken care of. But that’s not always the case. “As
medicine changes hospital stays get shorter and people are being turned out more
into the outpatient setting. For that reason a lot of complications can happen
or the individuals need monitoring.” For many patients most of that monitoring
happens at places like a wound care center. “There have also been some major
changes in the past ten years in terms of new applications that can be applied
again more on the outpatient setting. The dressings that we use we use something
called nano-technology basically we can have dressings that leach antibiotics or
antimicrobial chemicals into a wound,” says Dr. Casola. Another unique aspect of
wound care is the availability of a hyperbaric chamber. It helps to speed up the
healing process for many patients. “By putting the individual at a depth or
administering the oxygen under pressure we’re able to drive oxygen in the
tissues which can help to promote aster healing also helps to kill bacteria,”
says Dr.Casola. The hyperbaric unit at Southwest Florida Regional Medical Center
is a multi-place chamber which means it can hold up to ten patients in addition
to a physician and nurse. The wound care center is also ideal for patients
suffering from traumatic injuries, staph infections and wounds related to
diseases like diabetes. |
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