ASK THE EXPERT: DR. NAZ WAHAB
ASK THE EXPERT
Dr. Naz Wahab, MD. is a board-certified family practitioner and wound care specialist, serving patients at Las Vegas’ Wound Care Experts. Dr. Wahab is always integrating new, proven research and technological advancements in her patient-centered wound therapy programs.
You’ve been using SnapshotNIR in your clinic to aid in wound monitoring and assessment. What do you feel is the greatest benefit in supporting better patient outcomes and how do you ensure it is part of your clinical workflow?
Kent’s Snapshot is a tool that gives an assessment of oxygenation in the wound bed. Oxygenation in the wound bed involves many factors; the oxygenation in the blood, the oxygen-carrying capacity of hemoglobin, the presence of hemoglobin, the ability to have competent vasculature to deliver oxygen-rich hemoglobin, and the ability to remove deoxygenated blood from the wound. Oxygenation in the wound bed and surrounding tissues is an indicator of potential wound healing. Therefore, Snapshot should be used to assess the oxygenation of the wound bed and to obtain an indirect assessment of improvement in wound healing. It is important to get a baseline image of the wound on presentation, then another baseline image post-debridement on initial presentation. Following the initial presentation, I generally take an image every 2-4 weeks. The images can show the progression of skin tissue perfusion and oxygenation. It can show if a particular topical product is effectively creating a change in the wound bed by increasing oxygenation. If the wound has stagnated, or not created much progression, both are indicators to proceed to take new Snapshot images.
Do you find that the SnapshotNIR images help in patient compliance?
Yes. When the provider takes the time to explain the images captured and show the improvement, it does help increase compliance to the treatment algorithm/plan. Patients are more engaged when they see the differences in the pictures that they might not be able to see by looking at the wound.
With a point and click action, SnapshotNIR captures tissue oxygenation data. How do you use this information to design a treatment plan and how might it impact your decision-making in real-time?
Small improvements in tissue oxygenation can lead to significant improvements in wound healing. If there are areas of the wound that are not incrementally increasing in oxygenation then those areas likely need to be debrided or need attention with wound care products to help improve skin tissue perfusion.
You work with a number of advanced wound therapies such as skin tissue biologics to help heal your patients. How does SnapshotNIR support your documented justification of these treatment modalities?
SnapshotNIR can assess if there are positive changes to the wound bed after the application of advanced biologics. Take an image before the first application of the product then weekly prior to each subsequent application. This is beneficial to see the increase in oxygenation. Improvement in the wound bed occurs underneath the visual skin surface first and then, we as clinicians will see the improvement visually at a later time. If we are able to assess the skin oxygenation improvement with advanced biologics then it can help supply data that our wound healing algorithm is working. Additionally, it can help provide data to insurance payors that the cost is worth the expense.
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