Healing time: what a wound!
“What we want is to reduce the healing time and therefore the treatment”, assures Jérôme Marie, dermatologist at the hospital center since 2011. The healing department is made up of several doctors, a vascular surgeon, dermatologists, an infectiologist. This allows for global support. Today, the dermatology department performs two to three skin grafts per week. “With the new machines, a method has been developed since the start of 2022,” explains Alexia Eyraud.
“Some patients even tell us that they should have used our services before! »
99% of wounds concern the lower limbs with the famous bedsores. Dermatologists therefore compose with VistaCare: a box in which the leg remains 18 hours a day so that its environment is controlled. But also TPN (negative pressure therapy), which consists of exerting pressure on the area surrounding the wound, filled with a foam dressing. “The goal is also to make the wound budding, so that the graft is done faster and is more solid,” says Alexia Eyraud.
An elderly patient
“The average age of our patients is 80 years old as far as wounds are concerned”, says Jérôme Marie. For the team of the service, it would be necessary to reduce the duration of hospitalization, because the risk with the loss of mobility would be the loss of autonomy. “When you keep an elderly person too long, there is a danger of slippage syndrome,” says the dermatologist. Or a rapid deterioration in the general state of health, in connection with a triggering event (surgery, accident).
The Périgueux hospital center is also a partner of several accommodation establishments for dependent elderly people (Ehpad) in the Dordogne to monitor the evolution of wounds in person but also remotely thanks to telemedicine. With TPN, for example, patients can stay in their usual place of residence. Healing will take between four and six weeks. By maintaining themselves in their environment, they would be less worried by the treatment.
Also deal with stress
“Before, the operations were done under general anesthesia, now we do them locally,” says Jérôme Marie. To this is added hypno-analgesia to reduce pain using medical hypnosis. “The goal is to improve patient comfort,” says Alexia Eyraud. The dermatologist received five days of training for this support. “Some patients even tell us that they should have called on our services before! “, she adds.
