Tejido No viable

Debridement choice should take into consideration the patient’s circumstances and wellbeing, practitioner expertise and available resources. Options available include:

• Autolytic: Dressings that optimise a moist wound environment and aid autolysis to break down non-viable tissue. Selective and easy, but can be slow and increase the risk of infection¹
• Sharp: Scissors, forceps or a scalpel can provide fast and selective debridement, but require the appropriate level of skill and knowledge¹
• Surgical: Carried out in the operating theatre, often by a surgeon, involving complete debridement of the wound bed down to healthy, viable tissue through instant removal of all dead tissue. It may occasionally cause a larger wound due sacrificed viable tissue, and often requires anaesthetic and continued analgesia¹
• Larval: The use of maggots to kill bacteria and promote fibroblast growth.¹ Biological debridement can be quick and selective, but potentially costly and is not readily accepted by all patients¹
• Hydrosurgery: Delivers pressurised saline as a cutting tool for quick, selective debridement with minimal loss of viable tissue. Although not necessarily carried out in theatre,^* hydrosurgery may require anaesthetic to manage patient pain^1,5-6