Using science to advance wound care practice: lessons from the literature

Wound care professionals can improve clinical, patient-oriented wound outcomes and do so cost-effectively by using scientific evidence to meet patient and wound care goals and needs. A review of the literature was conducted to define evidence-based wound management, describe the potential of science to improve outcomes in wound care, and summarize strategies, tactics, and tools for wound care providers and recipients to utilize science to their mutual benefit. In addition, changes in the availability of randomized and nonrandomized and clinical and preclinical evidence during the past 50 years were examined using MEDLINE database searches of English-language publications, combining the search terms wound, ulcer, or burn limited by the terms randomized or clinical for each decade since 1960. The number of published, nonrandomized wound studies has increased exponentially during the last five decades but, more recently, evidence from randomized controlled trials also has become available. Moreover, while many questions remain unanswered, a substantial number of publications have shown the use of available evidence-based guidelines and wound care strategies improves outcomes of care while saving time and money. The application of science-based wound care in clinical practice is increasing slowly; expensive techniques supported by limited or inconsistent evidence are still in use and add to wound care costs without certainty they improve outcomes. The literature provides compelling evidence that patients with a wide variety of diagnoses benefit when opinion-based care is replaced by clinical wisdom applied on a substrate of best available evidence. Patients with wounds deserve no less.