Principles of Wound Management and Soft Tissue Repair I

Principles of initial wound management include adequate debridement, bacterial contamination assessment, nutritional optimization, and moist wound healing versus the use of negative-pressure wound therapy. The main goals of coverage procedures are to achieve a healed wound and avoid infection. Aside from allowing to heal by secondary intention, options for wound closure include primary closure, skin grafting, local flaps, and free flaps. Each wound should be evaluated on an individual basis to determine which method of coverage is most appropriate. This review contains 13 figures, 2 tables, and 22 references. Key Words: free tissue transfer, pedicle flaps, soft-tissue coverage, wound closure, wound healing, wound management, wound reconstruction, tissue flaps