wound care during covid 19 pandemic

To dive deeper into the impact of COVID-19 on wound healing, we designed 2 surveys (supplementary material, online): one targeting medical doctors and nurses involved in wound care, and one targeting patients with arterial and venous leg ulcers and their caregivers. The surveys were shared online using different social media platforms. The surveys were available from May 4 to May 10, 2020, and were anonymous. Survey respondents were asked to identify their state of practice (doctor/nurse) or their condition (patient/caregiver). All the respondents were from Italy. The first survey was completed by 46 respondents, 34 (73.9%) medical doctors (MD), and 12 (26.1%) nurses. When asked if the COVID-19 pandemic affected the management of wound dressings, 76.1% answered “yes”, showing that this is a widely shared problem among our specialty. In 82.6% of cases, MD and nurses observed a decrease in patients’ appointments. In case of missed appointments, contact with the patient was not maintained in 21.7% of cases. The most used contact method was telephone calls (58.7% of cases), with messages as the second one (43.5%). In half of the cases, MD and nurses have changed their dressing methods, by simplifying it; but only in 17.4%, they made a video to educate patients and caregivers on the proper way to wound care.