Chronic wounds can significantly reduce a patient’s quality of life due to drainage. A study reviewed existing tools used to assess drainage and highlighted the lack of and need for global drainage measures in inflammatory draining skin conditions. Monitoring changes in wound drainage severity is crucial for assessing treatment effectiveness. Existing tools for assessing wound drainage vary in their qualitative and quantitative approaches. Current measurement methods have gaps, with many scales lacking robust validation. Moreover, there is a lack of validated tools for assessing drainage in chronic inflammatory skin disorders like hidradenitis suppurativa or pyoderma gangrenosum. Researchers concluded that the development of a concise measurement tool for these conditions will enhance monitoring of treatment response related to drainage.
Reference: Shih T, Park S, Thorlacius LR, et al. Wound drainage measurements: a narrative review. Arch Dermatol Res. 2023 Sep;315(7):1863-1874. doi: 10.1007/s00403-023-02525-5. Epub 2023 Jan 21. PMID: 36680593; PMCID: PMC10366279.
