Unless you’ve suffered from one yourself, you may not be familiar with so-called “chronic wounds” — ulcers, sores or other ailments on the skin that won’t heal. The medical condition, however, is increasingly common, as the population ages and the number of new diabetes cases continue to rise. This week, Be Healthy! sat down with Dr. Larisa Shpitalnik, of Montefiore Medical Center’s Wound Healing Program, to learn a little more about the condition.

Q: What, exactly, is a chronic wound?
A: There is no certain definition for a chronic wound. A simple definition would be wounds that last more than three months, but I wouldn’t blame time—it’s actually wounds that fail to heal, for a lot of different reasons.

Q: What illnesses cause these types of wounds?
A: There are thousands of reasons. Systematic diseases, like diabetes. Chronic wounds include lower extremity wounds, diabetic ulcers. Diseases like sickle cell and lupus, a lot of other conditions can predispose someone for a wound. Patients who are immobilized [can get bedsores].

Q: How common are chronic wounds, in the Bronx specifically?
A: It’s pretty common. If you take a look at our demographics in the Bronx, we have more diabetes compared to other populations. Also, age — we have 35 nursing homes around.

Q: What are the complications that can arise from an untreated wound?
A: If you ignore wounds, you are actually ignoring the reasons for the wound—not just that the wound should be healed, but the systematic disease behind it. The wound is just what we see, just the top of the iceberg, but there is a huge amount of information behind: why did it happen? If you ignore it, you ignore that bigger problem.

Q: What is the healing process like?
A: Wound healing takes a long time, and it can be frustrating. Again, [you have to start] with [a patient’s] baseline treatment. If a patient comes in, you have to take care of their diabetes first—if they don’t, after a month or two months, [the wound] doesn’t get better, and then they come back. We have to work with their primary care physician to help them treat their diabetes.

Q: What kind of treatment do you use for the wounds themselves?
A: We provide surgical treatment, and treatment of infections.

Q: What else would you like our readers to know about what you do?
A: I would just like to let people know that we have this program. I think we under-diagnose chronic wounds, especially during outpatient care. There’s not that much information out there about this. We have inpatient and outpatient care. We’re trying to do everything to help as many people as possible.

Editor’s Note: To find out more about Montefiore Medical Center’s wound healing program, call (718) 920-7092.