Post-Operative Wound Dehiscence: Risk Factors, Assessment, and Nursing Priorities

Running Head: POST-OPERATIVE WOUND DEHISCENCE
0
Post-operative wound
dehiscence
Essay
student
5/2/2019

POST-OPERATIVE WOUND DEHISCENCE
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Post-operative wound dehiscence
Wound dehiscence is recognised as one of the most mutual problems occurs after the
surgical process of a particular body part, including the breaking exposed of the surgical cut
along the stitch used to heal the wound rapidly. This situation is a severe problem of complete
knee arthroplasty. There are numerous risk aspects for wound dehiscence counting
intraoperative, the postoperative aspects and patient-particular. Intra operative aspects comprise
the site of the incision; the formation of big laterally established skin flaps, which have lesser
blood quantity; and poor management soft tissue. Likewise, numerous factors are accountable for
unsuccessful wound healing, for example age, peripheral vascular illness, infection, fatness,
smoking, patient’s insufficient nutrition, augmented force or stress applied to edges of the wound
(Sazegari, Mirzaee, Bahramian, Zafarani, & Aslani, 2017). In this particular essay the patient
case will be discussed. Risk factors, pathophysiology, initial assessment, nursing priorities, and
care plan will also be discussed.
Some of the risk factors associated with the post-operative wound dehiscence in case of
John are being overweight, age, and other diseases like diabetes. Knees are the largest joints in
human body which contain multiple points of cartilage hath assist in protecting bones. Condition
like repetitive motions, overuse and being overweight can wear down the protective cartilage at
the connecting point of kneecap, shinbone, and thighbone. Without these essential cartilages the
bones start rubbing together, which results in pain and inflammation (Herrero-Beaumont et al.,
2017).
The two main components of initial post-operative assessment are pain assessment and
infection examination. After the surgery the patient may feel some pain, which must be assessed.

POST-OPERATIVE WOUND DEHISCENCE
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The nurse should examine the pain using different questionnaires and tools such as rating scale.
As pain is the main issues that occur even before the operations, it can provide he useful medical
information’s and it is the responsibility of nurses to use this information to assist the patient and
alleviate suffering (Kim, Lee, Lee, & Kim, 2016). A rating scale used to measure the pain
contains 0 to 10 rating. Which indicates 0 means, there is no pain, 1-3 shows that the patient is
having little pain, 4-6 means there is a moderate pain, 7-10 shows that the client is suffering from
high or extreme pain. This assessment is necessary as it provide great information about the
successfulness of the operations and what treatment should be provided in this case. Another
component of assessment in John’s case is examining any infection. Infection is the potential
complication in any type of surgical procedure, comprising the total knee replacement. Wound
infection sometimes occurs as the results of wound dehiscence (Burns, Ritvo, Ferguson, Clarke,
Seltzer, & Katz, 2015). The particular implant may lose its attachment to the specific bone.
Bacteria is the most common cause of infections in the surgical procedure, and it is progressive
and cause many other issues, in case of John there is high chances of infection as he has the
history of type two diabetes. The nurses can perform blood tests for any infections an assess for
any symptoms like persistent fever, shaking chills, increased redness, swelling of k nee wound,
drainage from the knee wound, and increase in the knee pain (Burns, et al., 2015).
The two nursing priorities in case of Mr John Grant are the post-operative wound
dehiscence and diabetes management. Post-operative wound dehiscence is an unpleasant event
which may take place after nay type of surgical procedure. Commonly the two sides of the
surgical wound are bound together with the help of sutures or staples, which permit the skins to
heal back together more rapidly (Shanmugam, et al., 2015). However in some cases, a part or
entire wound can separate, leading to partial or complete wound dehiscence, which indicates that