Chronic wounds are challenging for patients to live with, complex for healthcare professionals to manage and expensive for society to treat. A group of wound care experts developed a practical and evidence-based clinical pathway for managing chronic wounds. Utilising a modified Delphi process, this consensus-based project involved nearly 2,500 frontline healthcare professionals across six continents. The project’s foundational premise was that the goal of wound care, regardless of diagnosis or cause, must always be to heal the wound*. The Wound Care Pathway was formally ratified by 96 wound care specialists and non-specialists and provides practical, evidence-based guidance on how to assess, treat and monitor wound care patients, and create an optimal healing environment that leads to fewer days with wounds.
*The exception to this rule is in the case of palliative patients and in nonhealing wounds, such as wounds with insufficient vasculature.
