Wound Care and Pressure Ulcer Management

Vocabulary flashcards covering fundamental wound care terms, pressure ulcer stages, tissue types, debridement methods, and clinical assessment tools based on the lecture transcript.

Maceration

Skin damage caused by excess moisture and heat, making the skin wrinkly, soft, or white and more susceptible to tissue breakdown.

Cytotoxic Agents

Cleansing products such as Betadine, hydrogen peroxide, and Dakin's solution that can damage viable, healthy tissue in a wound bed.

Dakin's Solution

A topical wound solution consisting of water and bleach that acts as a cytotoxic agent to viable tissue.

Perineal Care

Consistent cleaning of a patient's perineal area and bottom to maintain skin hygiene and avoid introducing fecal contamination into wounds.

Stage 1 Pressure Ulcer

A localized pressure injury where the skin remains intact but exhibits non-blanchable redness, typically over a bony prominence.

Stage 2 Pressure Ulcer

A pressure injury involving partial-thickness skin loss with exposed dermis.

Stage 3 Pressure Ulcer

A pressure injury involving full-thickness skin loss that may expose subcutaneous or adipose tissue, without extending into underlying muscle or bone.

Stage 4 Pressure Ulcer

A pressure injury with full-thickness tissue and skin loss resulting in directly exposed bone, muscle, tendon, or cartilage.

Unstageable Pressure Ulcer

A full-thickness pressure injury obscured by necrotic tissue or eschar, making it impossible to determine the true depth of the wound bed.

Eschar

Black, hard, or leathery nonviable necrotic tissue covering a wound bed.

Slough

Yellowish, gooey, or moist nonviable tissue found within a wound.

Deep Tissue Injury

Localized persistent non-blanchable deep red, maroon, or purple discoloration beneath intact skin, which feels soft or boggy due to deep tissue damage.

Tunneling

A narrow channel or pathway extending from any part of the wound bed into deeper adjacent tissues.

Undermining

Erosion or destruction of tissue extending beneath the intact skin along the margins of a wound, creating a shelf or cave-like space.

Budding

The formation of small, bumpy, bright red tissue clusters in a wound bed indicating the generation of new healthy tissue.

Granulation Tissue

Healthy, new red bumpy tissue that fills a wound bed from the bottom up as it heals.

Epithelialization

The stage of healing where new skin cells cover the surface of the wound bed to form intact skin.

Sharps Debridement

The removal of necrotic tissue using scalpels, scissors, or surgical instruments, which is outside the scope of practice for physical therapist assistants (PTAs).

Selective Debridement

Wound clearance methods that specifically target and remove nonviable tissue without damaging viable tissue, such as enzymatic and autolytic debridement.

Enzymatic Debridement

A form of selective debridement involving topical medications with specific enzymes that target and break down nonviable tissue.

Autolytic Debridement

A selective debridement process using the body's self-produced mechanisms and enzymes to break down dead tissue.

Nonselective Debridement

Debridement techniques that remove both viable and nonviable tissue simultaneously, including wet-to-dry dressings, wound irrigation, and hydrotherapy.

Wet-to-Dry Dressings

A nonselective mechanical debridement method where moist gauze is packed into a wound, allowed to dry, and pulled away to remove tissue.

Hydrotherapy

Mechanical debridement using whirlpool tanks to cleanse wounds, which risks damaging healthy viable tissue due to water pressure.

Braden Scale

An assessment tool used to predict a patient's risk of developing pressure ulcers, where a lower total score indicates a higher risk.