Many people will suffer from some type of wound in their lifetime, whether it’s cuts and scrapes that heal quickly or a more severe wound that won’t go away. How do you know when your wound needs treatment from a wound care expert rather than from yourself or a primary care physician?
Dr. Gary McCallum, medical director at Arkansas Heart Hospital’s Wound Care and Hyperbaric Center, explains that you should see a wound care specialist if you have a wound that won’t heal, because there could be an underlying condition.
“If you go to the ER and get a laceration suture (i.e. stitches), you don’t need to follow up with a wound care center. You can follow up with your primary care doctor. But if the wound doesn’t heal, that’s when we start to investigate and ask: do you have undiagnosed diabetes, do you have peripheral arterial disease, do you have venous disease, or do you have an infection that now needs to be addressed?”
The types of wounds that are more likely to need specialist treatment at a wound care center include complex, chronic and non-healing wounds associated with diabetes, peripheral arterial disease, peripheral vascular disease or a venous condition.
These wounds include:
- Diabetic foot ulcers
- Peripheral neuropathy
- Arterial and venous insufficiency ulcers
Other types of wounds we treat include:
- Complex soft tissue wounds
- Non-healing surgical wounds, skin grafts and flaps
- Traumatic wounds
- Gangrene
- Radiation tissue damage
- Brown recluse bites
- Atypical leg ulcers
Wound Care Specialist Benefits
There are many benefits to receiving treatment from a wound care specialist at a wound care center:
- You will receive individualized treatment from multiple specialists based on your health issues and clinical history.
- Working with a specialist is the best way to reduce complications and infection.
- You will receive the latest wound care treatments and technologies including hyperbaric chamber therapy and surgical debridement.
Arkansas Heart Hospital’s Wound Care Center provides all these and more key features, including the largest individual hyperbaric oxygen therapy chambers in Arkansas.
“Where we stand out from other wound care centers is Arkansas Heart has so many tools in our tool chest,” Dr. McCallum says. “We can really home in and help people with diabetes and vascular disease. Best in class, medical-grade hyperbaric chambers are one of our tools. Immediate access to other Arkansas Heart specialists like interventionists and vascular surgeons is another.”
Hyperbaric therapy stimulates healing and is a safe, time-tested treatment to help patients go back to living their best lives.
Learn more about our hyperbaric wound care treatment and make an appointment with our wound care experts in Little Rock or Conway.