[Cutaneous wound healing. Therapeutic interventions].

In modern medicine chronic wounds are an interdisciplinary major therapeutic and financial issue. Essential for therapy is both the causal treatment of the underlying disease and the symptomatic treatment depending on the phase of wound healing. The physiological process of cutaneous wound healing is divided into three overlapping phases: inflammation, proliferation and tissue remodelling. The choice of a suitable therapy depends on the extent of the wound, the localization, exudation and bacterial infestation. In recent years a number of novel findings were made about this complex biological process and the insights gained have resulted in new therapeutic concepts. In the following article we give an overview about possible therapeutic options and present the various modern wound dressings.