Improving accuracy of wound measurement in clinical practice

Wound measurement is an important component of wound assessment that has the potential to provide baseline measurements to predict treatment outcomes. This review critically evaluates the efficacy of current wound measurement techniques. Findings indicate that true area measurement and percentage of area reduction of wounds are useful parameters for differentiating between wounds that are/are not responding to treatment. Two stages of error have been found to result during tracing and calculation of wound surface area. Studies demonstrate that the greatest error occurs when identifying the wound margin, rather than when determining the area traced. The benefits of plotting wound healing rates include increased accuracy of healing prediction and early identification of factors delaying healing, which lead to rapid intervention, greater efficiency of treatment, and improved patient outcomes. A 20% to 40% reduction of wound area in 2 and 4 weeks is likely to be a reliable predictive indicator of healing; the efficacy of this fact has been demonstrated specifically for venous leg ulcers. Specification of simple, clinical protocols could do much to improve accuracy of wound measurement. The literature indicates that future research should focus on development of a standardized method for measuring wounds and reporting wound healing rates.