Where has the time gone? As LPN 2006 approaches the end of its second full year of publication, I'd like to thank all of you for your support of the journal. As we said from the beginning, what you read in LPN 2006 is a direct result of input from you and your colleagues.
We want you to know that we listen to your suggestions and consider them carefully. That's why we continually evaluate our subject matter and the practice areas we cover.
To that end, I'm pleased to announce that we've made a few changes. Beginning with this issue, we're adding two new departments to LPN 2006: Managing the Pain and Wound Watch.
Let's start with pain management. Pain is a silent epidemic in the United States. In 1999, it was estimated that 50 million Americans were living with chronic pain caused by a disease, a disorder, or an accident, and that another 25 million people suffered from acute pain resulting from surgery or an accident. Nearly half of all Americans see a physician with a primary complaint of pain each year, according to a 2001 study by the Mayo Clinic. And in a 2003 study, health care providers had more than 99 million office visits by patients with acute injuries. During those visits, pain management drugs were mentioned 117.8 million times.
Given these figures, it's not surprising that we seem to hear almost every day about a new medication or treatment for acute or chronic pain. The range of pain management options is broad: Nerve blocks, physical and aquatic therapy, electrical stimulation, acupuncture, patient-controlled analgesia, medication patches, psychological counseling, and surgery are among the methods currently in practice. Our goal in adding a department on pain management is to provide you with the most up-to-date information on the causes of acute and chronic pain and to keep you informed of the latest techniques and treatments for managing what's often a misdiagnosed or misunderstood condition.
Another diverse and far-reaching topic we'll be focusing on in LPN 2006 is wound care. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, about 9% of hospitalized patients and 23% of nursing home residents develop pressure ulcers. It's estimated that treating pressure ulcers in the United States costs more than $1 billion annually and increases a nurse's workload by 50% per patient. About 600,000 cases of venous ulcers develop annually in the United States-and the recurrence rate is up to 90%. Diabetic foot wounds, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, are responsible for more hospitalizations than any other complication of the disease. Among patients who have diabetes, 15% will develop a foot ulcer and 12% to 24% of those with a foot ulcer will require amputation.
These stunning numbers-and your requests for more focused information on the subject-help explain why we've launched our new department on wound care. We'll provide information on how wounds develop and how they affect your patients. We'll also take you step-by-step through the wound evaluation process, and we'll explain the varieties of treatments available-including topical agents, debridement, alginates, foam and film dressings, hydrocolloids, hydrogels, hydrotherapy, and negative pressure wound therapy devices.
The changes we've made underscore our commitment to making LPN 2006 an ongoing reflection of your clinical and professional development needs. As always, I look forward to hearing from you. You may reach me by contacting Lisa Hathaway, RN, BSN, Clinical Editor of this journal, at [email protected]. LPN
RICHARD R. GIBBS LVN
Editor-in-Chief, LPN 2006, Ambler, Pa.