During a consultation, your doctor will use various techniques in his assesment of the symptom: Healing symptoms. These may include a physical examination or other medical tests. Your doctor may ask several questions when assessing your condition. It is important to remember that your consultation is a two-way process and any extra information you can share with your doctor may help them with their diagnosis.
Some of the questions your doctor may ask are listed below:
Why: to determine if acute or chronic.
Why: if only on the lower legs this may suggest venous insufficiency, peripheral vascular disease (poor circulation) or neurological disease.
Why: healing does reduce with normal aging.
Why: e.g. diabetes, Cushing's syndrome, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, Autoimmune lymphoproliferative syndrome, kidney disease, jaundice, cancer, tuberculosis, AIDS, hemophilia or sickle cell disease may all cause poor healing.
Why: certain medications may cause poor healing such as corticosteroids, immune suppressants, cancer chemotherapy.
Why: can cause impaired wound healing.
Why: e.g. scurvy due to Vitamin C deficiency causes poor healing; malnutrition impairs healing especially protein depletion; deficiency of Vitamins A and C, zinc, manganese and protein cause impaired wound healing.
Why: e.g. hemophilia, sickle cell disease, diabetes, Ehlers -Danlos syndrome.
Sometimes, other symptoms may be present and may help your doctor analyse your condition. These may include:
Why: e.g. arterial ulcers due to inadequate arterial blood supply are usually very painful and include pain at rest; pain may also suggest infection of skin wound.
Why: may or may not indicate infection of the ulcer or wound site.
Why: e.g. red, swollen, warm, tender skin that may be discharging a pus-like discharge - if a wound or skin lesion is infected the healing will be poor.
Why: e.g. venous ulcers are usually on the inside of the lower leg, varicose veins may be visible on the legs.
Why: e.g. arterial ulcers usually occur on the outside of the lower leg, intermittent claudication , leg pain at rest, dry pale skin on lower legs, loss of hair on the lower legs.
Why: e.g. weakness, muscle pain, 'corkscrew hair', swollen spongy gums with bleeding and loosening of the teeth, spontaneous skin bruising, poor wound healing.
Why: e.g. frequency of urination, excessive thirst, weight loss, fatigue, increased infections. May be complicated by peripheral neuropathy or peripheral vascular disease which increases the risk of poor healing leg and foot ulcers. Diabetes also directly causes poor skin healing.
Why: e.g. weight gain especially central abdominal, change of appearance, moon-like face, thin skin, easy bruising, excessive facial hair growth, acne, muscle weakness, lack of or rare menstrual periods, poor libido, depression, psychosis, insomnia, frequent urination, excessive thirst, poor wound healing`
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