Nutrition and Wound Healing

Adequate nutrition is a crucial factor in preventing and healing wounds. Despite the presence of many studies over the course of years, evidence about the relationship between nutrition and wounds is still lacking, due to its multi-factorial origins. It is generally accepted that wound patients are at risk in terms of nutritional problems. Malnutrition must be considered a crucial factor in determining prognosis, quality of life, rehabilitation, and costs for most patients, both in hospital and at home. Patients with wounds should undergo a nutritional procedure for diagnosis and treatment; adoption of a formal screening test to identify patients with a malnutrition risk could be considered the first step of an ideal process. The second step would be a complete nutritional assessment with analysis of intake and dietary allowances, identifying a nutritional plan and a follow-up program. Nutritional care could involve a standard treatment, but specific nutrients seem to have specific roles in wound healing. The gap between literature evidence and clinical practice is still wide regarding nutritional treatment in wounds care management; strategies to increase awareness of the importance of malnutrition in wound patients should be adopted. Actual and history weight, body mass index and a formal screening tool for malnutrition should be part of the evaluation of all wound patients.