An 18-month review of the Long Beach Wound Scores system showed it can be an intuitive and effective way to assess and categorize patients with diabetic foot ulcers.
LBWS includes five assessments using 2-point (best) to 0-point (worst) grades based on specific findings to generate a 0- to 10-point wound score.
For a study published online in Wounds, researchers studied the accuracy of LBWS in 105 hospitalized patients, with or without diabetes, with lower extremity wounds.
Their wounds were categorized as healthy, problem or end-stage, depending on their initial LBWS reading. In addition, outcomes were graded as good or poor using a 5-level scale.
Overall accuracy of the LBWS for predicting good versus poor outcomes was about 75.3%.
“LBWS is a versatile tool that makes it possible to grade wounds easily and accurately whether in the foot and whether the patient has diabetes,” the researchers reported. “The LBWS integrates perfusion, depth and infection information from three predominantly used DFU and pressure injury scoring systems while adding the assessments of appearance of the wound base and size.”
From the May 01, 2018 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
