A wound that is not getting enough blood could take at least twice as long to heal, if it heals at all. These are called chronic wounds. These are more common in elderly people or people with diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, or other vascular disease.

People who smoke are at high risk for poor wound healing. If you have a wound that is not healing in a reasonable time frame, make an appointment with your healthcare provider. If you smoke, ask your provider for resources that will help you quit. Search Encyclopedia. How Wounds Heal Most of us take wound healing for granted.

Steps to wound healing Step 1: Stopping the bleeding hemostasis When your skin is cut, scraped, or punctured, you usually start to bleed.

Step 2: Inflammation Once the wound is closed with a clot, the blood vessels can open a bit to allow fresh nutrients and oxygen into the wound for healing.

Step 3: Growth and rebuilding Blood cells, including oxygen-rich red blood cells, arrive to help build new tissue. Step 4: Strengthening Over time, the new tissue gets stronger. Interrupted wound healing The process seems simple enough, but wound healing is really quite complicated and involves a long series of chemical signals.

An intra-individual comparison of four different regimes in an abrasive wound model. Submitted for publication. EWMA Conference European Wound Management Association , May Wounds heal faster covered by a plaster to promote moist wound healing.

The length of time it takes for a cut to heal depends how large or deep it is. Small cuts and scratches will usually heal in weeks, while larger wounds may take months, or longer.

Open wounds tend to take longer to heal than closed wounds. Large or deep wounds will heal faster if treated with sutures, so surgical wounds usually take less time to heal than other wounds.

Surgery cuts take around six to eight weeks to heal. A wound which takes longer than the expected time to heal is known as a chronic wound. These types of injury may take years to heal, or may never heal at all. For more detail on the four stages of wound healing, visit our article on the topic.

There are a number of risk factors which may make a person more susceptible to slow wound healing. Risk factors include:. However, none of these natural options have strong scientific evidence backing them.

We recommend following our Cleanse, Protect and Heal wound care routine for the best results. Popular products. Plasters Wound Plasters Kids Plasters Fixation Tapes Dressings Sensitive Plasters Blisters Scar Reducer All Products. Healing Ointments All Products. Wound Sprays All Products. Tough protection for tough projects Cuts and grazes Protect against infection with Elastoplast Bacteria Shield plasters.

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Creams and Ointments Healing Ointments All Products. Sprays Wound Sprays All Products. Why Elastoplast? Partnerships Dr. People should always complete the entire course of antibiotics, even if infection symptoms are no longer present.

This treats the infection fully and prevents bacteria from becoming resistant to the antibiotic. Learn more about infected wounds here. Minor open wounds may not require medical treatment. However, people should clean the wound and dress it using a clean bandage.

An unclean wound may cause a bacterial infection to occur. Once the wound is clean, there are several techniques to speed up the healing process. These include the use of antibacterial ointments, turmeric, aloe vera, garlic, and coconut oil.

A person should seek medical help right away if their wound is large. A doctor may use stitches to close the wound and ensure that it is clean.

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Medical News Today. Health Conditions Health Products Discover Tools Connect. Medically reviewed by Dominique Fontaine, BSN, RN, HNB-BC, HWNC-BC — By Adam Rowden — Updated on January 18, Tips for faster wound healing Treating open wounds Should wounds be covered?

Contacting a doctor Summary Most small wounds heal naturally with time, but home remedies — such as aloe vera, antibacterial ointment, or honey — may speed up the healing process. Was this helpful? Methods for making a wound heal faster.

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Good sources of fats to promote wound healing include meat, full-fat dairy products such as milk, cheese, butter, cream, yoghurt, ice-cream, and oils and fats used in cooking or as spreads. It is important to aim for weight maintenance during wound healing.

If a person is overweight they should not try to lose weight until their wound has completely healed. A person who is underweight should try to put on enough weight to bring them into the normal range.

L-Arginine is an amino acid that has properties that enhances some of the pathways involved in wound healing, such as its role in structural protein synthesis. As the body needs more protein during wound healing the demand for normally nonessential amino acids, such as l-arginine, becomes conditionally essential.

Dietary supplementation with arginine has been shown to enhance protein metabolism, helping to reduce muscle loss, and collagen synthesis, which then helps to increase the strength of the wound.

This is why arginine-containing nutritional supplements, such as Arginaid, may be useful. Vitamin C plays an important role in collagen synthesis and subsequent cross-linking, as well as the formation of new blood vessels angiogenesis.

Adequate Vitamin C levels will help strengthen the healing wound. Vitamin C deficiency has been found to impair wound healing and has also been associated with an increased risk of wound infection.

Research has shown vitamin C supplementation helps promote pressure ulcer healing. Vitamin C is found mostly in fruit and vegetables, especially oranges, grapefruit, tomatoes, and leafy vegetables.

Fruit juices with added vitamin C are also a good source, although often they contain only small amounts of vitamin C. Vitamin A increases the inflammatory response in wounds, stimulating collagen synthesis. Low vitamin A levels can result in delayed wound healing and susceptibility to infection.

Serious stress or injury can cause an increase in vitamin A requirements. While the mechanisms of vitamin A in wound healing are still not well understood, it is clear that it plays an important role.

Supplementation with vitamin A requires caution, as there is a risk of toxicity. Vitamin A is found in milk, cheese, eggs, fish, dark green vegetables, oranges, red fruits and vegetables. Zinc is a trace element, found in small amounts in the body, which plays a role in wound healing.

Zinc is involved in protein and collagen synthesis, and in tissue growth and healing. Zinc deficiency has been associated with delayed wound healing, reduced skin cell production and reduced wound strength.

Dietary zinc sources include red meat, fish and shellfish, milk products, poultry and eggs. Iron is a mineral that provides oxygen to the site of the wound; therefore iron haemoglobin deficiency can impair healing.

Iron deficiency can also result in impaired collagen production and strength of the wound. The best sources of iron in the diet are red meat, offal, fish, eggs, wholemeal bread, dark green leafy vegetables, dried fruits, nuts and yeast extracts. Hydration is important in wound healing, as dehydrated skin is less elastic, more fragile and more susceptible to breakdown.

Dehydration will also reduce efficiency of blood circulation, which will impair the supply of oxygen and nutrients to the wound. To form new skin tissue new cells need to form, and cell growth thrives on moist conditions Wounds heal faster covered by a plaster to promote moist wound healing.

Stages of wound healing Wound healing is a complex process that can be subdivided into the four phases below: Blood clotting Exudation and Inflammation Proliferation and granulation Epithelialization and regeneration For more detail on the four stages of wound healing, visit our article on the topic.

Risk factors for wound healing and how to address them There are a number of risk factors which may make a person more susceptible to slow wound healing. Risk factors include: Age: Unsurprisingly, wounds usually take longer to heal for older people, who have reduced capacity to create new body tissues.

Immune system: Those with a weakened immune system, either naturally or as a result of treatment such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy, may find that their cuts heal more slowly. Healthy foods rich in nutrients like vitamin A, C, potassium and zinc provide your body with the fuel it needs to speed up wound healing.

Power foods like dark, leafy greens, as well as ginger, mushrooms, beets and yoghurt will also help your body heal wounds faster. Avoid foods heavy in spices, sugar and nitrates, which can cause inflammation or strain skin-tissue.

Smoking and alcohol intake: Carbon monoxide in cigarettes lowers the oxygen level of blood vessels and causes them to constrict. This limits the blood flow to damaged areas, and effectively makes it harder for your body to fight infection and rebuild tissue.

Excessive alcohol consumption impacts key parts of your body for healing, such as the liver and immune system. Consider avoiding both to optimise wound healing. Lack of sleep: Our immune system consumes lots of energy when repairing tissue damage and fighting infection.

Inactivity: While getting enough rest and sleep is important, regular exercise improves blood flow and reduces inflammation. Even less intense activities like walking can speed up the wound healing process.

Poor wound management: Make sure to follow the Elastoplast Wound Care Routine when you first sustain a wound. Over time, even if it looks like the wound is healing, keep it clean and apply new dressings or plasters until your doctor or treatment plan advises otherwise.

Learn more in Wound dressing know-how. How to tell if a wound is healing or infected 4 min. Wound Cleansing 5 min. Wound Protection 4 min. Stages of wound healing 3 min. Always see a doctor if the wound is deep, bleeds heavily or shows signs of infection like reddening, swelling or warmth.

Please note that, although these were compiled with great care, the tips and advice given on this website by no means substitute medical advice and treatment. If you have or suspect a health problem, consult a doctor and follow medical advice regardless of what you have learned on this website.

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Summary Read the full fact sheet. On this page. Causes of chronic wounds The healing process Barriers to wound healing Diagnosis methods Treatment options Self-care suggestions See your doctor Where to get help.

Causes of chronic wounds Some of the many causes of a chronic skin wound can include: being immobile pressure injuries or bed sores , where persistent localised pressure restricts blood flow significant trauma injury to the skin surgery — incisions cuts made during operations may become infected and slow to heal deep burns underlying medical conditions such as diabetes or some types of vascular disease specific types of infection such as the Bairnsdale or Buruli ulcers Mycobacterium ulcerans trophic ulcers, where a lack of sensation allows everyday trauma to lead to an ulcer — such as in diabetic neuropathy and leprosy.

The healing process The healing process of a skin wound follows a predictable pattern. The normal wound healing stages include: Inflammatory stage — blood vessels at the site constrict tighten to prevent blood loss and platelets special clotting cells gather to build a clot.

Once the clot is completed, blood vessels expand to allow maximum blood flow to the wound. This is why a healing wound at first feels warm and looks red. White blood cells flood the area to destroy microbes and other foreign bodies. Skin cells multiply and grow across the wound. Fibroblastic stage — collagen, the protein fibre that gives skin its strength, starts to grow within the wound.

The growth of collagen encourages the edges of the wound to shrink together and close. Small blood vessels capillaries form at the site to service the new skin with blood.

Maturation stage — the body constantly adds more collagen and refines the wounded area. This may take months or even years.

This is why scars tend to fade with time and why we must take care of wounds for some time after they have healed.

Barriers to wound healing Factors that can slow the wound healing process include: Dead skin necrosis — dead skin and foreign materials interfere with the healing process. Infection — an open wound may develop a bacterial infection.

The body fights the infection rather than healing the wound. Haemorrhage — persistent bleeding will keep the wound margins apart. Mechanical damage — for example, a person who is immobile is at risk of bedsores because of constant pressure and friction.

Diet — poor food choices may deprive the body of the nutrients it needs to heal the wound, such as vitamin C, zinc and protein. Medical conditions — such as diabetes , anaemia and some vascular diseases that restrict blood flow to the area, or any disorder that hinders the immune system.

Age — wounds tend to take longer to heal in elderly people. Medicines — certain drugs or treatments used in the management of some medical conditions may interfere with the body's healing process.

Smoking — cigarette smoking impairs healing and increases the risk of complications. Varicose veins — restricted blood flow and swelling can lead to skin break down and persistent ulceration.