Abstract
Understanding wound healing is critical for health care professionals mainly because of the enormous burden of chronic wounds on society. In addition, in many medical specialties, creating wounds for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes is part of a physician’s daily practice.
Acute wounds are usually closed using sutures, staples, or other methods of wound closure. Conventional modalities include maintenance of a moist wound bed, and prevention of infection. Although acute wounds are not challenging in most settings, they may influence the hospital stay or expenses related to medical procedures. Chronic wounds however, are more challenging. The incidence of chronic wounds in the United States is approximately five to seven million per year (Sen et al., Wound Repair Regen 17(6):763–771, 2009) and the annual costs for management of these wounds is greater than $20 billion.