June is Wound Healing Awareness Month. Wounds are sores or cuts in the skin also known as ulcers. Living with a wound that just won't heal can be frustrating, scary and potentially serious. A foot ulcer can be prone to infection, which may become severe and lead to amputations. Seeing a wound specialist will help speed up healing and improve your quality of life.

There are different types of wounds based on the cause and location of the wound on the body. Let’s look at why foot ulcers sometimes develop, what you can do to help prevent treat them.

Wound types

Ulcers can be acute and heal quickly, meaning they take a long time to heal or do not heal at all. There are several types of chronic wounds. The most common types include:
• Diabetic foot ulcers.

• Arterial ulcers due to poor blood flow to the feet.

• Pressure ulcers.

• Venous ulcers.

• Traumatic wounds.

• Non-healing surgical wounds.

Why some people ARE prone to foot ulcers

Foot and leg ulcers occur for several reasons. They are more common if you have diabetes, reduced feeling to your feet, if your diabetes is not well controlled and if you have poor blood flow to the feet. All these factors increase your risk of developing a diabetic foot ulcer. The risk of this occurring increases the longer you have diabetes and the older you are.

Arterial and venous ulcers happen because the blood vessels are not working well. With arterial ulcers there is not enough blood flow to the feet leading to ischemia, pain and gangrene while venous ulcers result from malfunctioning veins leading to swelling and heaviness in the legs. Pressure ulcers also called “bed sores” are caused by constant pressure on the skin that cause them to break down. On the feet these occur on the heels and over areas where there is prominent bone. Traumatic wounds and non-healing surgical wounds are self-explanatory and usually don’t last as long as the other chronic wounds.

 

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