Safe debridement in the community

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Clinical 

REVIEW

244

  

Wounds Essentials 2012, Vol 1

SAFE DEBRIDEMENT 

IN THE COMMUNITY 

SETTING

H

aycocks and Chadwick (2012) 

defi ne debridement as the 

removal of dead or necrotic 

tissue or foreign material from and 

around a wound to expose healthy tissue. 

Th is includes the hyperkeratotic skin that 

often surrounds venous leg ulcers and 

the callus found on the feet of diabetic 

patients with motor neuropathy. 

Debridement removes potential 

obstacles to healing, including slough 

and necrotic tissue (Benbow, 2011a,b). 

Additional reasons for removing non-

viable tissue from a wound include:

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Reducing the bacteria count in 

the wound bed (Best Practice 

Statement, 2011)

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Reducing wound malodour 

(Vowden and Vowden, 1999)

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Promoting advancement of 

epithelial cells and thus restoring 

the epidermis  (European Wound 

Management Association 

[EWMA] 2004)

8 

Facilitating the absorption/action 

of topical preparations e.g. topical 

antimicrobial agents (Weir et al, 

2007)

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Allowing a thorough wound 

assessment (Stephen-Haynes and 

Callaghan, 2012)

8 

Shortening the extended 

infl ammatory phase of the healing 

process and thus preventing  

wound chronicity (Baharestani et 

al, 1999).