by Caroline Fife, M.D. | May 18, 2021 | Don't Miss This
I thought I saw this tendon sort of quivering. I am only sorry that I wasn’t able to film while I worked. When I opened up the bloated end of this tendon, I found the motherlode of maggots. This video shows the little explorer who alerted me to the problem. You can...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | May 17, 2021 | Don't Miss This
Wounds often form over tendons (particularly the Achilles and the lateral ankle). It’s important to ask the patient to move whatever the tendon might attach to – to see if the wound “moves” with the tendon. For example, if the wound is over the Achilles, ask the...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | May 14, 2021 | Fight the Good Fight, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
Check out my article on the Ethics of Off-Label Use of HBOT on the Hyperbaric Aware campaign site! There are many fantastic blogs by folks you likely know. –Caroline Caroline Fife, M.D.Dr. Fife is a world renowned wound care physician dedicated to improving...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | May 14, 2021 | Don't Miss This
My initial reaction was, “What the heck is THAT? I don’t want to be the Sigourney Weaver of wound care!” The patient is a 30+ year survivor of high-dose radiation for a sarcoma over her right hip and thigh. She has terrible late effects of radiation, and the tissue...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | May 13, 2021 | Fight the Good Fight
This is a 70-year-old man with a dehisced flap on the plantar surface of the left foot after a melanoma excision 6 weeks earlier. Based on the photos that he showed me from his phone, the cancer surgeon struggled to close the large defect on the bottom of his foot...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | May 12, 2021 | Fight the Good Fight
This is a 57-year-old woman with rheumatoid arthritis and a non-healing ulcer of the leg for a year, likely due to vasculitis. Traumatizing vasculitic ulcers with sharp debridement often makes them larger (besides being horribly painful) – so it’s generally a...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | May 11, 2021 | Fight the Good Fight, Nutrition & Wound Healing
This is a man in his mid-eighties with severe peripheral edema and a nasty looking leg ulcer that’s been present for about 2 months. His edema began 2 years ago, some weeks after his wife died. It turns out that he’s lost at least 20 lbs. over the past year. When I...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | May 10, 2021 | PAD Hall of Shame
I am humming that song from the ‘80’s, “Just another manic Monday…” Another patient in profound heart failure with shortness of breath that prevents her from lying supine, who’s got edema from the abdomen down. Fluid is coming right through her skin (see the...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | May 10, 2021 | Fight the Good Fight, Pressure Cooker: Rethinking Pressure Ulcers
Check out this podcast interview with Drs. Tracey Yap and Jenny Alderden discussing their recent research on the frequency of repositioning for nursing home patients and the relationship of pressure injuries (PI) to angiosomes. Here’s a link to the related article in...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | May 10, 2021 | Miscellaneous Musings
We just celebrated another healed wound, and the team was presented with these special treats from GiGi’s Goodies in Spring, Texas. Click the link to send them an email, or give them a call at (281) 660-2281. I ate a Band-Aid, and it was delicious. Caroline Fife,...
