Role of plastic surgery on the treatment complex wounds

To report the performance of plastic surgery in the treatment of complex wounds in a tertiary hospital, analyzing its characteristics, types of injuries and approaches adopted, with emphasis on surgical treatment.

We conducted a etrospective analysis of patients with complex wounds treated by plastic surgery in a tertiary hospital in a period of five years (2006 to 2010). Data collection was obtained from visits made, serial assessments and records of the medical charts.

There were 1927 patients treated (32 queries/month), mean age 46.3 years, predominantly male (62%). The surgical specialties requested 1076 consultations (56%), and the clinical, 851 (44%). The distribution by type of wound showed predominance of pressure ulcers (635/33%), traumatic wounds (570/30%), complicated surgical wounds (305/16%) and necrotizing wounds (196/10%), with the remainder represented by vasculitis (83/4%), venous ulcers (79/4%), diabetes (41/2%) and post-radiation (18/1%). The treatment was surgical in 1382 patients (72%) and non-operative in 545 cases (28%). There were 3029 operations, predominantly debridement (1988/65%) and skin grafting (619/21%) associated or not with negative pressure therapy (vacuum), followed by pedicle flaps (237/8 %), digital reimplantation (81/3%), microsurgical flaps (66/2%) and other (38/1%).

The plastic surgeon played an important role in the treatment of complex wounds by adopting early surgical treatment, contributing to the effective resolution of cases.