B04: Wound Management & Debridement

Dressings and debridement cannot heal a diabetic foot ulcer if the other pillars of care are missing. The choice of dressing is often the most debated part of ulcer care and usually the least important. What matters first is whether the wound is offloaded, whether there is peripheral artery disease, whether there is infection, and whether glycaemia, blood pressure, lipids and smoking have been addressed.

This module teaches systematic wound assessment and tracking, and applies TIME and TIMERS to plan care. It compares sharp, maggot, ultrasound-assisted, enzymatic and autolytic debridement using the evidence hierarchy, and explains biofilm: how to suspect it, why antibiotics alone are insufficient, and why physical disruption is irreplaceable. It covers dressing choice by moisture balance, the four-week 50% area reduction rule for a hard-to-heal wound, the place of negative pressure wound therapy in post-operative wounds, and ulcer-free survival days as an outcome measure.

Content is tiered at Foundation, Core and Advanced level, with assessment and escalation algorithms and case vignettes. You receive the Teaching Document, the Evidence Base, the slide deck, a narrated video and an audio overview.