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Abstract: The World Alliance for Wound and Lymphedema Care (WAWLC) is a newly formed global health partnership that strives to work with communities to harmonize and intensify actions at country, regional, and global levels in support of optimal care for people suffering from chronic wounds and lymphedema. The following provides an overview of the organization’s mission.

Address correspondence to:
John Macdonald, MD, FACS
4401 NE 25th Ave.
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33308
Phone: 954-491-2911
Email: trappermac@aol.com

Background

     Over the past two decades the world has seen tremendous medical advances in modern wound care and lymphedema management, principally due to new scientific knowledge, techniques, and materials. These advances have occurred mainly in developed countries. The diagnosis and treatment of chronic wounds and lymphedema, both primary and secondary in etiology, involves all medical specialties and all ages. The management of diseases and conditions such as diabetes mellitus, venous ulceration, pressure ulcers, traumatic wounds, and AIDS-related wounds have benefited from improved medical knowledge and technology, which leads to better care and reduction in both the morbidity and economic burden. Additionally, it is anticipated that utilizing modern wound care methods for wounds related to leprosy, Buruli ulcer, trauma, and common tropical ulcers would also lead to significant benefits.

     The precise global burden of chronic wounds and lymphedema is not known and international statistics that provide the full picture of prevalence, disability, and impairment of wounds, burns, and lymphedema are difficult to acquire. The etiologies of these conditions are numerous with regional, national, and local specificities. However, the epidemiology and economic burden of the chronic wound is well documented in the developed world. Each year, in North America, between five and seven million chronic and/or complex wounds occur. A recent study in the UK showed a prevalence of patients with a wound was 3.55 per 1000 population.¹ The majority of wounds were surgical/trauma (48%), leg/foot (28%), and pressure ulcers (21%). Prevalence of wounds among hospital inpatients was 30.7%.¹ Wounds in Australia represent a highly significant health issue: some estimates suggest that more than 200,000 Australians have problem wounds at any one time.²

     With the growing epidemic of noncommunicable diseases and longer life expectancy, the prevalence and impact of chronic wounds and lymphedema are likely to increase. Furthermore, studies show worrisome data about the extent of chronic wounds and lymphedema in resource poor nations. A recent study in India estimated a prevalence rate of chronic wounds at 4.5 per 1000 population. The incidence of acute wounds was more than double at 10.5 per 1000 population.³ The etiology of these wounds included systemic conditions such as diabetes, atherosclerosis, tuberculosis, leprosy, venous ulcers, pressure ulcers, vasculitis, and trauma. In India, filariasis may account for 23 million cases of lymphedema.^4,5 According to data from epidemiological studies, the incidence of chronic ulcers among surgical hospitalized patients in China is 1.5%–20.3%.⁶ Diabetes is the third leading cause of general mortality in Mexico and between 8%–12% of the Mexican general population (4 to 6 million people) currently have diabetes.⁷ Buruli ulcer has been reported from 30 countries in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and the Western Pacific mainly in tropical and subtropical regions.