A Brief History of Wound Care
One of mankind’s oldest manuscripts is a clay tablet that dates back to 2200 BC. Described, perhaps for the first time, are the ‘‘three healing gestures’’ — “washing the wounds, making the plasters, and bandaging the wound” (Shah, 2011). Plasters function like today's wound dressings in their ability to protect the wound and remove exudate. Although we’ve come a long way from mud and clay, the principles have remained constant for nearly five millennia. A common ingredient found in these old plasters were oils. The oils allowed plasters to function similar to today’s non-adherent dressings, like Adaptic and Mepitel, and also provided the wound with protection against bacteria.
Mesopotamian cultures were found to have used beer to treat their wounds. No, not as an anesthetic to numb the pain, but as part of concoctions that were applied to the surface. As time went on cultures became even more adventurous with the Egyptians being the first to utilize honey as an antibacterial agent. “Honey was also used for wound care in India long before the time of Christ, demonstrating that separate medical cultures empirically arrived at the same successful therapy” (Shah, 2011).
The Greeks were the first to differentiate between acute and chronic wounds while the Romans were the first to describe the four cardinal signs of inflammation. It was not until the 18th century that surgery became more recognized as a distinct and respected branch of medicine. As surgery evolved into the 19th century, so too did wound care. It was not until we entered the 20th century that many of the novel technologies we use today began to emerge. “In contrast to large numbers of general technological inventions over the past 100 years, progress beyond ancient wound care practices is a recent phenomenon” (Shah, 2011).
Although progression in wound care has been substantial over the last 100 years, I can’t help but feel like we’ve barely scratched the surface of what we can do. As our understanding of the wound environment advances, so too do I expect to see advances in treatment. My journey in wound care is still so young, yet I feel like I’ve already absorbed so much. As wound care advances, I hope to advance with it; pushing to heal more wounds and provide more patients with relief from their ailments. We’ve made so much progress as a specialty over the last 5 millennia, I can’t wait to see what we do over the next 5 years.
References:
Shah, Jayesh B. “The History of Wound Care.” The Journal of the American College of Certified Wound Specialists, vol. 3, no. 3, 2011, pp. 65–66., doi:10.1016/j.jcws.2012.04.002.
