12.4 Novel palliative wound dressing promotes healing

Aletha Tippett, MD

Introduction: Wounds are a tragic problem at the end of life, with little expectation that wounds will heal. A novel wound dressing was developed for palliative treatment of wounds to reduce pain and prevent infection. Palliation was achieved, and surprisingly, nearly one-half of wounds treated healed or were healing.

Methods: Retrospective case study review of 323 wounds in hospice patients treated over a 30- month period. Wounds treated included pressure (44%), neuropathic (10%), and arterial (10%). 231 wounds were treated with the novel dressing, 92 received other treatments.

Results: Median age of patients was 82. Average length of time that patients lived after treatment started was less than 90 days, with a majority of patients living less than 30 days. No new wound infections were reported. Pain relief was significant, as assessed by nurse and physician observation. Despite short treatment times, nearly 50% of wounds in the novel treatment group were healed or healing, compared to 20% in the other treatment group.

Conclusion: Using a novel dressing designed for palliation not only reduced pain and prevented infection, but also resulted in wound healing more than double that of wounds treated with other methods.

*Proprietary mixture containing liquid hydrogel, lidocaine, and antibiotic on gauze.