When Does a Wound Become Chronic?

In healthy individuals with no underlying factors an acute wound should heal within three weeks with remodeling occurring over the next year or so. If a wound does not follow the normal trajectory it may become stuck in one of the stages and the wound becomes chronic.

Chronic wounds are thus defined as wounds, which have “failed to proceed through an orderly and timely process to produce anatomic and functional integrity, or proceeded through the repair process without establishing a sustained anatomic and functional result.”6 Once a wound is considered chronic it
should trigger the wound care clinician to search for underlying causes, which may not have been addressed. Better yet, an understanding of the causative factors should lead us to be proactive in addressing these factors in at risk populations so that chronic wounds are prevented.