Moist wound healing
Maintaining a moist wound environment facilitates the wound-healing process1
Thanks to George Winter, a 1960s pioneer in moist wound-healing practices, health care practitioners now have a greater understanding of the need for a moist wound-healing environment.
Wounds that are allowed to dry out will heal more slowly than those that have the benefit of moisture. Epithelial cells require moisture to move from the wound edges to re-epithelialize or close the wound. In a dry wound, these cells move below the wound bed to find a moist area. In a moist wound environment, however, the cells are able to migrate directly across the wound bed, which results in faster healing rates.
Benefits of a moist wound include:1
- Prevention of tissue dehydration and cell death
- Accelerated angiogenesis
- Increased breakdown of dead tissue and fibrin
- Reduced pain
"Although the benefits of healing in a moist wound environment have been published worldwide, the use of woven gauze as a wound contact material still prevails in many countries."2
References [+]
- Kerstein MD. Moist wound healing: the clinical perspective. Ostomy Wound Manage. 1995;41(7A Suppl):37S-44S.
- Jones VJ. The use of gauze: will it ever change? Int Wound J. 2006;3(2):79-86.