Safe debridement in the community

Figure 4. Case study 2 — 

Haematoma caused by 

trauma.

Figure 5. The wound during 

debridement with Debrisoft.

Figure 2. Case study 1 — 

hyperkeratosis.

Figure 3. Five  minutes 

after using Debrisoft.

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significant cost and time.

 

Instead the team used Debrisoft to 

debride the haematoma, which took  

under 10 minutes. The pad was easy 

to use, caused no pain to the patient 

and successfully lifted the haematoma 

(Figures 5 and 6). 

Before commencing the procedure, 

the team checked Mrs M’s  warfarin 

levels and there was no further 

bleeding during the debridement 

procedure.

Conclusion

Debridement has become part of 

the recognised wound care routine. 

However, autolytic debridement 

has become routine practice and 

this requires revisiting as it may not 

always be the best option for the 

patient. Patients should have access 

to the most appropriate method of 

debridement at the time they require 

removal of devitalised tissue from 

their wound.

The previous hierarchy of 

debridement, which placed surgical 

debridement at the top of the ‘pecking 

order’, is now under question and 

the speed of debridement in the 

community setting is becoming 

a priority to prevent patients 

having extended periods with 

non-viable tissue in their wound, 

which ultimately delays healing and 

puts them at an increased risk of 

developing a wound infection.

However, for certain clients autolytic 

debridement might suit their individual 

needs following an open discussion 

and exploration of potential methods.

There is the need for practitioners to 

revisit their skill-set to ensure they 

are equipped to offer patients the 

appropriate debridement method for 

their needs.

Periwound skin and wound bed 

preparation are essential components of 

wound management. These need to be 

undertaken as soon as possible by the 

assessing health clinician, without the 

delay of referral to a specialist team. 

The new debridement system 

highlighted in this article can be 

applied to many sloughy and necrotic 

wounds and hyperkeratotic skin. This 

makes it ideal for use in the non-

specialist area and it has been shown to 

be fast, safe and effective at wound and 

periwound skin debridement.