Wound healing and peripheral vascular disease.

Patients who are hospitalized in the intensive care unit with peripheral vascular disease are at a higher risk for developing complications. The impaired wound healing of this patient population compounds the initial presenting pathology. It is the prudent critical care nurse that realizes this and incorporates this into a plan of care for the patient. Postoperative interventions should be aimed at preserving blood flow and tissue oxygen perfusion and maintaining nutritional requirements to achieve adequate collagen synthesis, angiogenesis, and the prevention of infection.