Opinion: Addressing the Neglect of “Other” Open Wounds Beyond DFUs, VLUs, and Pressure Injuries
Summary: An opinion piece in the Journal of Wound Care (2025) argues that healthcare systems and research frameworks disproportionately emphasize well-defined hard-to-heal wounds—such as diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs), venous leg ulcers (VLUs), and pressure ulcers (PUs)—while neglecting a large category of “other” open wounds. These include surgical incisions, trauma-related lacerations, punctures, or unspecified wounds coded under ICD-10 classifications. The authors contend that overlooking these wounds perpetuates inefficiencies, inflates costs, and worsens patient suffering. Integrating comprehensive strategies across all wound categories, regardless of etiology, is essential for patient-centered and equitable wound care.
Key Highlights:
- ICD-10 coding context: “Other” wounds are often labeled under codes such as S01 (head), S41 (shoulder and arm), S81 (knee and lower leg), or T14.1 (unspecified), encompassing trauma wounds, bites, and open injuries that resist neat categorization.
- Exclusion from guidelines: DFUs, VLUs, and PUs dominate protocols and resource allocation because their etiologies are specific, while surgical or trauma wounds that linger in outpatient care remain marginalized.
- Outpatient burden: Surgical wounds may dehisce, trauma wounds may linger, and wounds in patients with comorbidities (e.g., autoimmune or hematological conditions) often fall outside existing guideline frameworks.
- Systemic inefficiency: By excluding “other” wounds from research and reimbursement models, healthcare systems underestimate true prevalence, under-resource outpatient management, and limit innovation in holistic care.
- Proposed solution: Building on reimbursement frameworks like those by Tettelbach et al., the authors advocate for equal rigor in managing “other” wounds, integrating them into clinical guidelines, and expanding funding for non-categorized wound care.
Read the full opinion piece in Journal of Wound Care
Keywords:
open wounds,
ICD-10 wound codes,
diabetic foot ulcer,
venous leg ulcer,
pressure injury,
surgical wounds,
trauma wounds,
Tettelbach