Wound Healing and Limb Preservation
The Center for Wound Healing and Limb Preservation is an advanced care center for the treatment of difficult-to-heal wounds of the lower extremities. Our mission is to provide the highest quality clinical services to meet the individual needs of each patient.
Refer a patient
The Limb Preservation Program welcomes referrals from physicians for evaluation or treatment. We offer unique resources to treat patients with complex wounds and vascular issues. We will work with you to coordinate your patient's treatment plan and keep you informed throughout the process.
Our multidisciplinary team has a limb preservation coordinator who handles patient intake and ensures a seamless process for you and your patient.
If you are a referring physician, please email us at [email protected] or call 612-873-5075 for more information.
Meet the team
- Interventional Radiology
- Vascular Surgery
- Podiatric Surgery
- Hyperbaric Medicine
- Endocrinology and Diabetes Education
- Infectious Diseases
The Center for Wound Healing and Limb Preservation uses a unique and innovative combination of resources to assess and treat patients with complex wound conditions and vascular issues.
Services
- Fluorescence microangiography
- Angiography
- Multi-place hyperbaric chamber
- Mono-place hyperbaric chamber
- Ultrasound
- X-ray
- Conscious sedation for dressing changes
- Transcutaneous oximetry
Utilizing fluorescence microangiography – a new technology that can assess blood flow in chronic, non-healing wounds and diabetic ulcers- physicians can guide treatment approaches and evaluate recovery.
Offering unique resources to treat patients with complex wound and vascular issues
The Center for Wound Healing and Limb Preservation uses a unique and innovative combination of resources to assess and treat patients with complex wound conditions and vascular issues. Utilizing fluorescence microangiography – a new technology that can assess blood flow in chronic, non-healing wounds and diabetic ulcers – physicians can guide treatment approaches and evaluate recovery.
Hennepin Healthcare is the first in Minnesota to use the LUNA™ Imaging System during wound assessment. For wounds to heal effectively, healthy blood flow, or microcirculation, is essential. Non-healing wounds can often result from diabetes, a complication from recent surgery, or even frostbite. Hennepin Healthcare has the only multi-chamber hyperbaric oxygen facility in the region that’s used for 24/7 emergency treatment of critically ill patients and those with limb or life-threatening infections.
This program works closely with interventional radiology (a way to look inside your body with non-surgical tests and procedures) and our vascular surgeons when the best option is surgery.
What sets us apart
Hennepin Healthcare is the first in Minnesota to use the LUNA™ Imaging System during wound assessment. For wounds to heal effectively, healthy blood flow, or microcirculation, is essential. Non-healing wounds can often result from diabetes, a complication from recent surgery, or even frostbite. Hennepin Healthcare has the only multi-chamber hyperbaric oxygen facility in the region that’s used for 24/7 emergency treatment of critically ill patients and those with limb or life-threatening infections.
Frequently Asked Questions
When you arrive at our state-of-the-art facility you will meet our providers to discuss your medical history, review medications learn about allergies you might have. We will examine your wound to determine the best treatments. Your wound may be photographed with our 3D camera to accurately measure the wound and document healing over time. Tests may be ordered including blood flow studies, x-ray films and laboratory work to help determine the diagnosis.
All patients are treated with an individualized plan that is developed based on the underlying problem that caused the wound to develop. This treatment plan may change with time and is based on your medical history, results of tests we have ordered and your personal needs. Wound care treatments may include helping you receive medical supplies for dressing changes at home or providing dressing care in our clinic.
Our goal is not just to place a bandage over the wound, but to help determine the underlying cause and ensure a deeper level of healing. Because of this we may order additional tests and/or refer you to experts in other fields of medicine.
A multi-layer compression wrap is a special compression dressing that incorporates medication into the bandage to help heal and comfort irritated skin. Typically used in patients with venous insufficiency disease (disease of the veins and the valves within veins) these dressings help alleviate the swelling and irritation associated with this condition.
Negative pressure therapy is a specialized treatment that utilizes a sealed dressing over a wound, along with a medical grade vacuum device that creates sub-atmospheric pressure around the wound. This helps encourage healing and removes fluid and swelling from the site.
Many chronic wounds do not heal as new skin cannot bridge over the open wound. Skin substitute therapy uses cells grown in a laboratory that can be placed on a healthy wound bed to assist and expedite the process of growing skin to close a wound.
