This is a clinical review of current techniques in wound bed preparation found to be effective in assisting the wound-healing process. The process begins with the identification of a correct diagnosis of the wound's etiology and continues with optimizing the patient's medical condition, including blood flow to the wound site. Débridement as the basis of most wound-healing strategies is then emphasized. Various débridement techniques, including surgery, topical agents, and biosurgery, are thoroughly discussed and illustrated. Wound dressings, including the use of negative pressure wound therapy, are then reviewed. To properly determine the timing of advance therapeutic intervention, the wound-healing progress needs to be monitored carefully with weekly measurements. A reduction in wound area of 10 to 15 percent per week represents normal healing and does not mandate a change in the current wound-healing strategy. However, if this level of wound area reduction is not met consistently on a weekly basis, then alternative healing interventions should be considered. There is a growing body of evidence that can provide guidance on the appropriate use of such adjuvants in the problem wound. Several adjuvants are discussed, including growth factor, bioengineered tissues, and hyperbaric medicine.

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The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (ARHQ) patient safety indicators (PSI) were developed as a metric of hospital complication rates. PSI-14 measures postoperative wound dehiscence and specifically how often a surgical wound in the abdominal or pelvic area fails to heal after abdominopelvic surgery. Wound dehiscence is estimated to occur in 0.5–3.4% of abdominopelvic surgeries, and carries a mortality of up to 40%. Postoperative wound dehiscence has been adopted as a surrogate safety outcome measure since it impacts morbidity, length of stay, healthcare costs and readmission rates. Postoperative wound dehiscence cases from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample demonstrate 9.6% excess mortality, 9.4 days of excess hospitalization and $40,323 in excess hospital charges relative to matched controls. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the associations between PSI-14 and measurable medical and surgical co-morbidities by using the Explorys technology platform to query electronic health record (EHR) data from a large hospital system serving a diverse patient population in the Washington DC and Baltimore, MD metropolitan areas. The study population included 25,636 eligible patients who had undergone abdominopelvic surgery between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2012. Of these cases, 786 (2.97%) had post-operative wound dehiscence. Patient-associated co-morbidities were strongly associated with PSI-14, suggesting that this indicator may not solely be an indicator of hospital safety. There was a strong association between PSI-14 and opioid use after surgery and this finding merits further investigation.