Nutrition in Wound Care Management: A Comprehensive Overview

Wound care is a multidisciplinary specialty requiring many physiologic and immunologic processes as well as physical, social, and societal factors to achieve successful wound closure. Most wounds are treated with combinations of antimicrobials, protective barriers, and topical growth agents, including skin and biologic grafts.The role of nutrition in wound healing may be overlooked in the wound care patient. Like the specialty, it is often multifaceted, with many nutritional components playing a variety of roles in the wound healing process. Suboptimal nutrition can alter immune function, collagen synthesis, and wound tensile strength, all of which are essential in the wound healing process. It is also important to remember that not all wounds are equal: a burn is different from a diabetic foot ulcer, which is different from a pressure ulcer. Nonetheless, nutrition is a common denominator for all wound patients, and what is studied in 1 wound population is often relevant in another. Due to the complexities of monitoring and measuring both wound healing and dietary intake, randomized, controlled trials of wound care patients are difficult to conduct, and much of the data concerning nutrition in wound care relies on combined supplements. In summary, it appears that some nutrients are necessary only if deficient, whereas others may become conditionally essential and serve a therapeutic role. All of the nutrients discussed should be viewed as a component of a broader, complete diet. This article is a summary of wound healing and the roles of a variety of macronutrients and micronutrients in the process.