Traditional and Nontraditional Evaluation of Wound Healing Process

Wound healing is a dynamic, interactive cascade of molecular, cellular, and biochemical processes. Even though many therapeutic interventions are utilized, physician decisions are hampered by the lack of objective and convenient methods to monitor treatment effects and assess wound healing. Wound evaluation has traditionally relied on visual assessment by the trained clinician; however, new aspects are providing objective assessment modalities. As a gold standard methodology for wound healing assessment, that procedure should be applicable to all types of wounds, proven reliable, accurate, and precise. Moreover, it should be sensible and reflect the progression of the whole healing spectrum with time. Simplicity, safety for patients, and convenience for clinicians should also be considered as important factors. Since the assessment needs to be performed regularly, standard methodologies should be affordable, should be time efficient, and, at the same time, should not require cumbersome equipment. To date, no one method meets all of these criteria, and it is necessary for clinicians to understand the type of wound, sample size, results obtained, advantages, and limitations of each technique in order to choose the optimum tool for wound evaluation.