The modified TIME-H scoring system, a versatile tool in wound management practice: a preliminary report

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The concept of WBP (wound bed preparation) has revolutionized the way to diagnose and correctly identify the best therapeutic path about the widespread clinical problem of difficult wounds. Starting from the modified TIME-H, authors conducted a preliminary study with the aim of assessing the impact of skin lesions and soft tissues for the surgical patient. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 38 patients were preliminarily evaluated. The patients were classified according to the lesion examined, in particular among those who had an infectious or vascular etiology (SSTIs), and patients with surgical site lesions (SSI) and assigned to one of three categories prognosis: favorable (with healing expected within 12 weeks) (0-3A, 0-1B), intermediate (with healing expected over 12 weeks) (4-6A, 2-4B) and uncertain healing (7-8A, 5-8B). RESULTS: At the end of the one-year observation period, authors established the healing prediction rate among the studied lesions: the surgical site lesions presented the highest percentage of predictivity (88%), followed by the mixed etiology (72%) and the infectious/vascular injuries (63%). CONCLUSION: This modified-TIME-H can be considered as a versatile and useful scoring tool that should be used in daily clinical practice for the study and treatment of chronic wound diseases.