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The Wound Center at Anne Arundel Medical Center (AAMC) offers comprehensive therapies for outpatient treatment of chronic, non-healing wounds resulting from poor blood circulation, diabetes or long-term immobilization. For patients with these conditions, a simple blister can result in a chronic open sore, infectious gangrene and even amputation.

“Our main mission is to cure chronic wounds before they progress to the most serious stages,” said Dr. James Chappell, a plastic surgeon and medical director of AAMC’s Wound Center. “We have a team of skilled specialists associated with the center so we can apply an interdisciplinary approach to each individual patient,” he said.

Vascular surgeon Mark Peeler, M.D. and John DeLeonibus, D.P.M.; and wound rehabilitation specialist Sarah Clay Jamieson, M.D., comprise the core physician group associated with the Wound Center. Specialists in orthopedics, endocrinology and infectious diseases also are available.

People with diabetes are at the greatest risk for chronic, non-healing wounds. Up to 15 percent of the estimated 16 million Americans with diabetes may suffer from chronic wounds—most commonly non-healing foot ulcers. With most wounds, healing follows a relatively brief, predictable and uncomplicated course. But chronic wounds need specialized treatment.

AAMC’s wound management program includes a complete evaluation and non-invasive vascular studies, followed as needed by debridement, infection control, revascularization, skin-grafting, state-of-the-art wound healing technology, compression therapy, patient education and preventive measures to preclude the recurrence of wounds. The center is located on the first floor of AAMC’s Clatanoff Pavilion.

Wound Center Advantageous to Diabetes and Vascular Patients

Endocrinologist Joan Cantero-Lakhanpal is delighted with AAMC’s Wound Center. As the medical director of AAMC’s Diabetes Center on the third floor of the Sajak Pavilion, Dr. Cantero-Lakhanpal knows how important multidisciplinary care is for the diabetes patient suffering from chronic, non-healing wounds. She emphasizes that the increase in the incidence of diabetes nationwide is reaching epidemic proportions among both juvenile and adult populations.

“The resources offered by AAMC’s Diabetes Center, the Wound Center and the Vascular Center are a remarkable example of how medical specialties can overlap for the good of the patient,” she said. “It also is essential to have a primary care physician tied into the overall treatment of the individual and the interaction with the family.”

Diabetes is a disease in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin. One of the complications related to the disease is that many diabetic patients suffer nerve damage and have trouble distinguishing discomfort in their extremities, so a minor cut or abrasion to a foot can become infected before the patient realizes it. In addition, most diabetics have compromised blood flow so that it becomes more difficult for wounds to heal.

More than 16 million people in the United States have diabetes and half of them don’t know it. People who are obese are likely candidates for diabetes—whether they are children or adults. Also people with circulatory problems are apt to have diabetes, a condition that is frequently first identified by a vascular specialist.