Dysphagia and Wounds: Making the Connection
Nancy Collins, PhD, RDN, LD, NWCC, FAND
Dysphagia is the medical term for swallowing difficulties. It is characterized by the abnormal transfer of a bolus of food or liquid from the mouth to the stomach involving any of the 3 stages of swallowing (oral, pharyngeal, or esophageal). In a large population-based study, 1 in 6 adults reported experiencing difficulty swallowing.1 In long-term care facilities, the prevalence of dysphagia is likely much higher, but limited data is available.
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Use of Citrulline as an Efficient Arginine Supplement
Nancy Collins, PhD, RDN, LD, NWCC, FAND
QUESTION: I am a wound care nurse working in long-term care. Over the past few years, arginine has become popular for wound healing, so my facility began using nutritional supplements containing arginine. Recently, I have started seeing nutritional supplements for wound healing containing citrulline, but I am not sure what this is and if it is any different than arginine. Can you explain what role citrulline plays in wound healing?
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How Dietary Protein and Collagen Dipeptides Improve Wound Healing
Nancy Collins, PhD, RDN, LD, NWCC, FAND
Nutrition is a critical factor in the wound healing process, with adequate protein intake essential to successful healing. Patients with chronic and acute wounds, such as postsurgical wounds or pressure injuries, require increased protein to ensure complete and timely healing. Older patients with multiple comorbidities present a particular challenge. They often do not consume the necessary quality and quantity of dietary protein.
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Ingestion of bioactive collagen hydrolysates enhanced pressure ulcer healing in a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled clinical study
Fumihito Sugihara, Naoki Inoue, and Sriraam Venkateswarathirukumara
We conducted a double blind, multi-centric, placebo-controlled, randomized trial to compare the Pressure Ulcer Scale for Healing (PUSH) and Pressure Sore Status Tool (PSST) scores and wound area measurements at 16 weeks of subjects with pressure ulcers who were given standard care plus one of two types of collagen hydrolysate (CH-a), which contained low levels of prolylhydroxyproline (Pro-Hyp) and hydroxyprolylglycine (Hyp-Gly)
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Collagen-Derived Di-Peptide, Prolylhydroxyproline (Pro-Hyp): A New Low Molecular Weight Growth-Initiating Factor for Specific Fibroblasts Associated With Wound Healing
Kenji Sato, Tomoko T. Asai and Shiro Jimi
Many cells and soluble factors are involved in the wound healing process, which can be divided into inflammatory, proliferative, and remodeling phases. Fibroblasts play a crucial role in wound healing, especially during the proliferative phase, and show heterogeneity depending on lineage, tissue distribution, and extent of differentiation. Fibroblasts from tissue stem cells rather than from healthy tissues infiltrate wounds and proliferate.
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