Chronic wound as a public health issue and how to improve the follow-up and treatment of patients afflicted was the topic of the seminar, which was organized on October 22 by Hospital da Luz and the Public Health School of the University of Aveiro (ESSUA), with the participation of several specialists in the area. The event, entitled Chronic Wound in Vascular Etiology , is part of a cycle of seminars on chronic wound that are being organized by the ESSUA, Hospital da Luz Aveiro and the Multidisciplinary Centre of Wound Treatment and Tissue Regeneration of Hospital da Luz Oiã. It is estimated that the prevalence of chronic wound in the general population is of 3.3 wound bearers in a thousand inhabitants and in a third of differentiated health care users, with an average of 412 days of wound presence (according to data from 2014, compiled by Jorge Pereira Alves in “Wounds: prevalence and cost”, doctoral thesis in Nursing, at Universidade Católica Portuguesa). “With such a large number of patients suffering from this pathology, this initiative is vital so that we are able to improve the treatment of these patients in the region”, highlighted Paulo Farber , physician and researcher at Hospital da Luz Aveiro and coordinator of the Multidisciplinary Centre of Wound Treatment and Tissue Regeneration from Hospital da Luz Oiã. “This partnership between the major private hospital in the region and Aveiro University involves a multidisciplinary group of health professionals (namely doctors, nurses and physiotherapists) with a large academic and scientific experience, viewing to improve assistance and research in the area of tissue cicatrisation and regeneration”, he added. In the opening session of the seminar, Pedro Beja Afonso, the administrator of Hospital da Luz units in the central region of the country, further stressed the relevance of the topic: “Chronic wound has a large prevalence and is highly incapacitating, being often associated with aging, therefore demanding greater attention. We have created a Multidisciplinary Centre of Wound Treatment and Tissue Regeneration at Hospital da Luz Oiã, because we believe that we have the competencies to provide a Medicine of excellence, a multidisciplinary and team Medicine that helps people”. This centre counts with the collaboration of nurses and doctors from different medical specialities, such as orthopaedics, plastic surgery and vascular surgery. “This partnership counts with professors of high scientific knowledge, that will ensure an updating and teach the latest in the assessment and treatment of wounds. Because this is a partnership between physicians and nurses, and with a unique academic quality, in this cycle of seminars there will be lectures involving not only the care of wounds, but also the assessment and the possibility to treat patients bearing wounds”, explained João Lindo Simões, professor at ESSUA. Unprecedented topics in discussion This first seminar held at ESSUA approached unprecedented topics in this kind of events on wound treatment – such as, for instance, the assessment of blood flow to the wound, electrical factors interfering with cicatrisation, methods of imaging used in the assessment of wounds, vitamin deficiency, and how pre-diabetes and diabetes act on the blood impeding normal cicatrisation, among other topics. There was also room for a practical workshop on the assessment and treatment of vascular chronic wound – provided by several health professionals, among them the nurses from Hospital da Luz Oiã, Marlene Moreira and Carina Lomba, which have large experience in this area. An experience that is “an advantage towards the development of concrete and specific competencies to take care of patients with this kind of wounds”, as stated by Paulo Farber.
