What is involved in debridement of pressure ulcers, decubitus?

Debridement: Debridement is a term that wound specialist use to describe the action of removing contents from the inside of the wound. There are many categories of debridement. For example, chemical debridements are the application of a surface product that chemically breaksdown the components on the surface of a wound. Surgical debridement is the use of sharp instruments to remove and enlarge a wound.

A cleanout and...: Often pressure sores are bottle shaped, with a small skin opening overlying a larger cavity that may extend to an underlying pressure point. This causes dead tissue to build up in the cavity, which is an excellent growing medium for bacteria. Debridement is removal of dead tissue and debris and enlargement of the skin opening: this allows easier cleaning and/or flap closure when the wound is clean.

Get the dead out: Debridement is a term regarding removal of dead and necrotic tissue from a wound as well as tissue above. The object being to clean and expose viable tissue to begin the healing process. This can be accomplished by several methods, sharp instruments, enzymes, 'autolytic' allowing the body's own enzymes to do it and more recently the use of maggots.