[Recognition and treatment of chronic wound infection]

Recognition and treatment of a chronic wound infection is an extraordinarily complex task that requires team work and purposeful and graduate resolving of the problem. Chronic wound infection is the most risky complication because it may have fatal outcome for the patient. The principles of best clinical practice include thorough examination of the patient with respect to endogenous diseases and risk factors, defining the locality of infection and wound characteristics, along with clinical symptoms of infection. Based on the wound status, diagnostic procedures are initiated and the causative agent and its sensitivity to antibiotics determined. With respect to the seriousness of the clinical picture, a plan of surgical interventions is developed. The main procedure is debridement, followed by supportive treatment methods, the choice depending on the indications and contraindications. The targeted method of treatment is systemic administration of antibiotics along with debridement. It is important to know that on approaching a chronic infected wound, the principles of sepsis and antisepsis should be observed. In clinical practice, there is a discrepancy between the adopted criteria for efficient treatment based on the evidence-based practice and objective and subjective problems that obstruct it. Thus, according to statistical data, 50% of antibiotics are prescribed wrongly or are rendered inefficient for some reason. Only half of the patients are treated correctly. It is high time to reach consensus on this issue and accept the facts relevant for the treatment of chronic infected wound, i.e. evidence-based medicine.