Treatment of chronic wounds (vascular surgery)

As a rule, wounds close without us having to do anything. Not so with chronic wounds: They need medical and nursing support to heal. The Department of Vascular Surgery at the University Hospital Zurich offers a special wound consultation several times a week for those affected.

The basic aim of treating chronic wounds is to support the body’s own healing process.
“The most important thing is to ensure that the affected tissue has sufficient blood and oxygen available and that the wound is regularly cleaned and refreshed,” says Dr. Philip Düppers, senior physician responsible for the wound consultation and certified medical wound expert at the USZ since January 2020.
For this purpose, the wound consultation hour has a wide range of modern wound dressings and debridement procedures as well as many years of nursing and medical expertise at its disposal.
Special procedures are briefly presented below.

Special therapy options

Occasionally, vacuum therapy is also prescribed in an outpatient setting.
A coarse-pored sponge is applied to the wound with a film.
A drainage tube is then used to suction out wound secretions using negative pressure.
This cleans the wound, reduces the number of harmful germs and promotes blood circulation.
Vacuum therapy is usually preceded by a surgical procedure to remove dead tissue.
In cold plasma therapy, cold plasma is sprayed onto the wound for around one minute using a pen.
This special gas can be used to kill hostile bacteria or viruses, stimulate cell growth and supply the skin and cells with oxygen.
Maggot therapy, on the other hand, is used when a layer of dead tissue is particularly persistent on the wound.
In this process, fly larvae bred and disinfected in the laboratory eat up the diseased tissue (biochemical debridement).

Interdisciplinary wound consultation

An interdisciplinary wound consultation is also offered at regular intervals.
Patients benefit from the expertise of different specialist areas, as specialists from dermatology, plastic surgery, angiology and orthopaedics take part in these wound consultations alongside our vascular surgery specialists.
Please register at iws@usz.ch.

Recognized wound center

Since March 2020, our wound consultation has been recognized as a wound center by the Swiss Association for Wound Treatment (SAfW).

Wound consultation flyer

Responsible doctor

Peter Nikolaus Sabisch, Dr. med.

Attending Physician with extended responsibilites, Department of Vascular Surgery

Tel. +41 44 255 20 39

For patients

As a patient, you cannot register directly for a consultation. Please get a referral from your primary care physician, specialist.

For referrering physicians

Simply assign your patient online.   University Hospital Zurich Clinic for Vascular Surgery Rämistrasse 100 8091 Zurich

Tel. +41 44 255 20 39
Patient registration form

Responsible Department