Practice Innovations
One follows the usual steps for sharp debridement (cleansing and anesthetizing deeper or more painful wounds). When the site is ready for debridement, the wound is dried out from blood and exudate. The area aimed for debridement is sprayed from a distance of about 5 to 6 cm from the wound bed until we see white icing on the tissues that need to be debrided. As soon as white icing appears, we continue spraying the area for another 2–3 seconds until the tissues are rigid enough for debridement. The total typical duration of the spray is 6–8 seconds. After that, we immediately use a curette in the usual fashion.
Results: Debridement using cryogens is an easy and effective adjunctive tool used for sharp debridement of tissues with increased elasticity or unfavorable texture. An added benefit is rapid onset anesthesia for debridement of painful wounds and a relatively bloodless surgical field.
Discussion: Sharp debridement is one of the pillars of wound bed preparation. Learning this critically important skill and utilizing cryogens facilitating debridement will likely improve wound healing outcomes.