by Caroline Fife, M.D. | May 19, 2021 | Nutrition & Wound Healing, PAD Hall of Shame
This is a retired physician in his 90’s whose mind is as sharp as a tack. He’s got congestive heart failure (CHF) and leg edema so severe that his skin is splitting open. He’s a chair sleeper in part because he has orthopnea (shortness of breath lying down), but also...
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. | Apr 29, 2021 | Fight the Good Fight, PAD Hall of Shame
Wounds are a symptom of disease, and usually the first disease we have to rule out in patients with lower extremity wounds is poor perfusion. Arterial disease is the most common reason, but not the only one. I rely on skin perfusion pressure (SPP) to determine whether...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Apr 28, 2021 | Fight the Good Fight, PAD Hall of Shame
Wounds are a symptom of disease, and usually the first disease we have to rule out in patients with lower extremity wounds is poor perfusion. Arterial disease is the most common reason, but not the only one. I rely on skin perfusion pressure (SPP) to determine whether...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Apr 27, 2021 | Fight the Good Fight, PAD Hall of Shame
Wounds are a symptom of disease, and usually the first disease we have to rule out in patients with lower extremity wounds is poor perfusion. Arterial disease is the most common reason, but not the only one. I rely on skin perfusion pressure (SPP) to determine whether...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Apr 26, 2021 | Fight the Good Fight, PAD Hall of Shame
Wounds are a symptom of disease, and usually the first disease we have to rule out in patients with lower extremity wounds is poor perfusion. Arterial disease is the most common reason, but not the only one. I rely on skin perfusion pressure (SPP) to determine whether...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Apr 23, 2021 | Fight the Good Fight, PAD Hall of Shame
Wounds are a symptom of disease, and usually the first disease we have to rule out in patients with lower extremity wounds is poor perfusion. Arterial disease is the most common reason, but not the only one. I rely on skin perfusion pressure (SPP) to determine whether...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Apr 22, 2021 | Fight the Good Fight, PAD Hall of Shame
Wounds are a symptom of disease and usually the first disease we have to rule out in patients with lower extremity wounds is poor perfusion. Arterial disease is the most common reason but not the only one. I rely on skin perfusion pressure (SPP) to determine whether...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Apr 21, 2021 | Fight the Good Fight, PAD Hall of Shame
I cannot do wound care without skin perfusion pressure. My machine is broken. If I don’t have one, I can’t do what I do. The hospital says that because the other wound centers use ABI that I should, too. But I see the problems they can’t fix. There is a lot of other...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | May 29, 2020 | Do the Right Thing: Thoughts on Quality, Fight the Good Fight, PAD Hall of Shame, US Wound Registry
I recently reviewed the case of an elderly woman with a non-healing wound who had ischemic rest pain and extreme malnutrition, neither of which were addressed by the wound center at which she was treated previously. Not surprisingly she failed to improve with the...
