Have a Dad who has bone cancer and a broken leg which keeps him in bed alot. He developed a bed sore in the hospital after surgery for a subdermal hematoma of the head. Has been getting worse. All the hospital and the home care nurse does is clean with saline and put a large square specialty bandage on it. Any one know of anything else to do for it. Thanks for the help.
Can you tell me more about the wound? I do some wound care at Ingalls ( I'm a physical therapist) and know a bit about many things. Mostly if it is not infected, we just keep it clean and cover it with a dressing. If it is getting smaller this is the right thing to do. All the advise you have is right on. The vacs work great, but generally need to be failing other treatments first. If you let me know more I can ask the wound specialists.
Consult with your doctor and/or home care provider until you feel that your concerns are being heard. You might consider a wound care assessment. Many hospitals have a specialized wound care management team that can offer suggestions. His cancer, sedentary state and possible compromised nutritional intake...these things are all working against him. Best of luck!
Michelle
The most important thing to do at this point is to keep it clean and keep him off of it. Make sure he is turning at least every 2 hours and try to avoid lying on the wound. Unfortunately it does not take long for these types of wounds to develop, but it does take a while to heal.
My sister is a wound care specialist and a nurse. The company she works for is amazing http://www.kci1.com/. She works with the VAC, check it out and ask the doctor. If the hospital does not have a contract with KCI they can still get it but you will have to bug them. KCI also has a bed that prevents bedsores but from what I understand that is for people that are not mobile and it costs a lot to rent. You could ask about it.
I am a home care nurse and deal with a lot of pressure ulcers. It sounds like what is being done is a proper standard of care and what is normally done for pressure ulcers, especially at the beginning. They are keeping the wound clean and keeping it protected which is really all that can be done. The best thing that you can do is make sure that he is being turned to a new position every two hours and if it is anywhere other than his butt (which is hard to stay off completely) make sure that body part with the wound stays off the bed as much as possible. You also should be making sure that he is getting an adequate amount protein which will help him heal, and hydration which will hydrate his tissues. I agree that if you are concerned that your dad isn't getting proper care, you can ask for a wound care specialist to come out from the hospital and assess the wound. However, I would ask to speak with a supervisor from the home care agency first and voice your concerns. She may be able to answer your questions and alleviate your concerns. Someone mentioned the wound VAC, however, the wound VAC is only used for certain types of wounds, mostly ones that are deep and/or infected, and the wound has to meet certain criteria before a doctor will prescribe it. It is not used for pressure ulcers unless they have progressed to a severe stage, which it doesn't sound like is the case for you. As someone else mentioned, pressure sores don't take long to develop, but they take a very long time to heal. So don't immediately discount what the home care agency is doing if you don't see progress right away - it will take a while. Good luck and I hope your dad recovers soon.
