Moist Wound Healing - Wound Care Education

A moist wound bed facilitates healing in many ways. Studies show that a moist wound heals 3 to 5 times faster than a dry wound. There are many reasons for this. First, by preventing scab or crust formation over the wound bed, a moist wound environment eliminates the energy and time that would have been required for the body to break down these materials. Keratinocyte travel time and distance across the wound surface are greatly reduced. As the cells are able to literally swim across the moist wound bed rather than burrow down beneath the dry tissue. A moist environment also traps enzymes within the wound bed, facilitating autolytic debridement. And lastly, a moist wound environment preserves growth factors within the wound fluid and increases fibroblast proliferation and collagen synthesis. It is important to maintain the proper moisture balance within a wound. Because while a moist wound bed facilitates healing, a wound that is too wet can actually delay healing. For example, if a wound is too wet, the wound fluid will not only pool on the wound surface, but also flow onto the intact periwound causing maceration. Macerated skin is white or silvery and may have a wrinkled appearance. When skin is too moist, it becomes more permeable to irritating substances and is more vulnerable to trauma and infection.