Nutrition and wound healing: an update

Nutrition has always been noted to be one of the major influences on the successful outcome of wound healing. The exuberant cellular and biochemical events that constitute the wound-healing cascade require energy, amino acids, oxygen, metals, trace minerals, and vitamins for successful completion. Many nutritional deficiencies impact on wound healing by impeding fibroblast proliferation, collagen synthesis, and epithelialization. There are also nutrients that can enhance wound-healing responses. It is imperative for physicians to obtain a complete nutritional history and consider nutritional intervention as a means of affecting the course of healing. This review examines many of the advances that have occurred in understanding nutrition/wound interactions.