When Should I Be Concerned About an Ankle Wound?

You’ve developed a wound or ulcer on your ankle and you don’t want it to turn the corner into a chronic wound. For good reason.

Chronic wounds affect 2.5% of the general population in the United States, which adds up to nearly 8.4 million people. And chronic wounds set the stage for limb-threatening infections, so identifying a potentially problematic ankle wound is important.

As our name suggests — Foot Ankle Leg Wound Care Orange County — we specialize in lower leg, ankle, and foot wounds. In this month’s blog post, Dr. Thomas Rambacher and the team want to provide some guidance when it comes to identifying a worrisome ankle wound because early intervention is critical.

How wound healing should proceed

Under normal circumstances, when you develop a wound, your body jumps into action and kicks off a four-stage healing cascade, which includes:

Homeostasis: stopping the bleeding
Inflammation: healing resources flood the scene
Cell proliferation: new cells replace damaged ones
Remodeling: the final strengthening of the tissue

If wound healing stalls in the early phases, the risk for infection increases considerably, and that’s exactly what we want you to watch out for when it comes to your ankle wound.

Early signs of a slow-healing wound

There are no exact timelines when it comes to the four stages of wound healing that we reviewed above, as it depends upon the severity of the wound. That said, there are ways to recognize a potential chronic and slow-healing wound, which often develop these characteristics:

Pain

Sure, pain is often present with ankle wounds, but the discomfort should steadily subside as the wound heals. If a wound isn’t on the right track, your pain can persist or even get worse.

Redness and warmth

If redness starts to develop around the margins of your ankle wound and the area feels warmer than normal to the touch, this is a sign of brewing infection.

Stiffness

As a wound heals, the area should move more easily. However, if you develop stiffness in your ankle around where the wound is, this might signal a problem.

Pus and fever

If your ankle wound oozes greenish to yellowish fluid, this is pus and it’s a sure sign that infection has set in. And the same goes if you develop a fever. Each of these side effects tells us that your body is trying to fight off harmful bacteria.

A good practice when it comes to ankle wounds, especially if you have a preexisting condition like diabetes or peripheral artery disease (PAD), is to err on the side of caution and come see us. We cannot emphasize enough the importance of early care with potentially chronic or problematic wounds.

To get that ball rolling, you can contact our office in Mission Viejo, California, at 949-832-6018 or request an appointment online today.