Exposure risk of patients with chronic infectious wounds during the COVID-19 outbreak and its countermeasures

A large number of cases of pneumonia caused by novel β-coronavirus emerged in Hubei Province, China, at the end of 2019 and demonstrated great potential for transmission. At present, known independent risk factors include age, diabetes, and other chronic diseases, which may be similar to the patients with chronic wound; thus, we try to explore the clinical characteristics, prognostic factors, and management recommendation of patients with chronic infective wounds during the COVID-19 epidemic period.

In this single-center, retrospective observational study, we included all cases with chronic infective wounds that came to our hospital between the full outbreak of the COVID-19 in China (January 23, 2020) and the latest date prior to posting (20 April 2020). Demographic data, comorbidities, laboratory and imaging findings, consultation history, and clinical outcomes (lesion cured, uncontrolled, amputated, etc. as of May 10, 2020) were collected for all individuals. Patients were subdivided into gangrene, traumatic infection, and other types of soft tissue infection wound (including bedsores, gout ruptures, stab wounds, and so on) according to the causes of wound, and their disease-related information were compared group by group.

Among the total 81 patients with chronic infective wounds, 60% were male, with a mean age of 60.8 years (SD 18.6), including 38 (47%) patients with traumatic infection, 29 (36%) gangrene cases, and 14 (17%) other soft tissue infection wounds. Common comorbidities are hypertension (32%), diabetes (32%), cardiovascular disease (24%), and kidney injury (12%), and the patients with gangrenes have the most comorbidities. As of May 10, 2020, there were 78 patients discharged, and their average stay time is 15.8 days (SD 14.2), while people still at the hospital is 39.7 days (SD 8.7) much longer than the discharged and also has more comorbidities. But there is no significant difference in the hospitalization time of three types of wounds. And fortunately, none of all the patients were infected by coronavirus.

The majority of patients with chronic wounds are severely ill with high risk of infection and poor prognosis; therefore, management of patients with chronic wounds should be improved.