8
Dietary Factors in Healing and Specific Nutrients
Overview
• Developing and implementing a personalized nutrition care plan and catering
to patients caloric, protein, hydration, micronutrient needs, and need for diet
modifications will ensure that patient nutrition is optimized and meeting all
essential needs for wound healing.
• When poor nutrition or malnutrition is present, wound healing can be
delayed, worsen, or even come to a halt.
• Hyperglycemia is a huge contributing factor for wound development and poor
wound healing.
• Optimal glycemic control is essential along with ensuring the patient's HbA1c
is at or near 7.0%. The exact target HbA1c should be based on age and insulin
production.
Factors Involved in Healing
• Proper nutrition is fundamental to healing.
• Multiple local, systemic, environmental, and even social factors must be
optimized to assure healing.
• Wounds require protein, calories, and micronutrients to provide the
substrate to support neovascularization, collagen formation and
epithelialization.
• Deficiency of a single nutrient such as Vitamin C are well known to cause
poor wound healing.
• Care providers managing patients with traumatic wounds should be aware of
the importance of metabolic support to provide nutrient substrate to heal
the wound.
