Current advances in modern wound healing

Wai-Ping Linda Fan is a Foundation Year 2 student, Department of Accident and Emergency, Royal Preston Hospital; Mamun Rashid is Core Surgical Trainee, Department of ENT Surgery, Tameside General Hospital, Manchester; Stuart Enoch is Speciality Registrar, Burns and Plastic Surgery, University Hospitals of South and Central Manchester Under normal circumstances, wounds are expected to heal within a reasonable period of time through a series of a regulated cascade of events. However, when the cascade becomes interrupted, wounds fail to heal in a timely manner, resulting in chronic non-healing wounds (ulcers). Over the years, a variety of measures have been attempted in the treatment of non-healing wounds, including a range of different dressing products, drugs and devices. However, not all wounds respond to the above modalities of treatment and, consequently, non-healing, refractory wounds continue to be a significant burden in the hospital as well as the community.