New Technology For Treating Diabetic Wounds Has the Potential to Increase the Rate of Operating Room Infections.

Diabetic foot ulcers or an increasingly common problem. In fact, the majority of Americans will at some point require wound care treatment in order to heal diabetic ulcers, venous ulcers or pressure ulcers. To meet this growing demand, those in the wound care field are developing in producing new technologies which have a great deal of promise in helping to treat these wounds which are typically difficult to heal.

One new such technology is a water scalpel. I have personally used these devices in surgery when in residency training. I found them to be extremely helpful at removing dead and infected tissue when preparing a difficult to heal diabetic ulcer for a skin or tissue graft. Unfortunately, recent research has shown that these water scalpels can send bacteria flying through the air in the operating room and lead to potential contamination of other surgery patients.

This week at the Annual Symposium on Advanced Wound Care and the Wound Healing Society Spring Meeting hosted the largest gathering of multidisciplinary wound care specialists in America.

Research conducted by clinicians at the University of Arizona won the top award in the research poster category which demonstrated that bacteria found in diabetic ulcers and other wounds can become airborne when using the water scalpel in a mock operating room environment. This study suggests that additional precautions are needed when using these devices in the operating room to prevent the spread of dangerous infections from one wound patient to another.

Additional research is needed in order to determine ways to confirm the risk of contamination as well as develop new ways of shielding patients from these dangerous types of infections. It is already known that hospital acquired infections are increasingly common and often involve the transmission of the most dangerous types of bacteria such as MRSA.

Dr. Christopher Segler is an award winning diabetic foot surgeon, author and inventor. He is the founder of a groundbreaking private consulting firm that specializes in diabetic amputation prevention. If you or someone you care about has diabetes, you can learn more by simply requesting your FREE report “No Leg Left To Stand On: The Secrets Insurance Companies Don’t Want You To Know About Diabetic Foot Amputation” at http://www.ineedmyfeet.com.