Wound Debridement: Understanding the Process & Benefits

Whether because of a condition that affects circulation (such as diabetes) or another skin condition, sometimes wounds will not heal without medical intervention. One of the manners in which wound-healing specialists treat such wounds is through wound debridement.

Basic Principle

• Wound debridement is a process to remove dead or infected tissue, which helps to spur the body to produce healthy tissue to replace the diseased tissue. This method can be used on a wound or burn.

Tools Used

• Debridement can be performed by a number of medical tools, including surgical, chemical, mechanical or through using the body's own tissues.

Benefits

• Debridement helps to remove diseased or contaminated cells in the body, which helps to facilitate healing. Additional benefits include that debridement creates a more clean wound edge, which reduces scarring.

Side Effects

• Side effects associated with the debridement procedure includes bleeding, infection or pain.

Additional Uses

• Debridement also is useful for taking tissue samples.