THE WHASA WHEEL – Integrating multiple specialities in patient management with wound healing as the common basis

Abstract

There is not a speciality in Medicine that I can think of today where Wound Healing does not impact. The surgical specialities by their very nature involve the healing of wounds in one form or another, but it is not always appreciated that almost every chronic medical condition also has associated wound problems. This reality results in an unprecedented amalgamation of medical minds and basic scientists all contributing to a surge in knowledge related to this relatively new field. The WHASA (Wound Healing Association of Southern Africa) WHEEL is a concept that has been developed to demonstrate the impact of interspeciality co-operation for the ultimate benefit of the patient. This article, by means of a hypothetical case, attempts to demonstrate this co-operation and to highlight esoteric situations that arise when considering wound healing among the different fields. It is by no means exhaustive of surgical scenarios but merely representative of fairly common situations that any of us could encounter on a daily basis. The article takes the form of a case report which is interspersed with wound healing discussions that I have added under the heading WHASA background comments. In addition invited comments from our esteemed colleagues that make up the components of the WHASA WHEEL are included within the text. Wound Healing Southern Africa 2008;1(1):00-00