Supporting evidence-based practice in nutrition and hydration

The aim of this review is to synthesise literature on food, nutritional status and wound healing to help inform those working in wound care. A literature search was performed on PubMed, Scopus and EMBASE databases. Studies were critically appraised and the findings were analysed by narrative synthesis. Nutritional assessment is important in practice as nutritional status can impact on wound healing in several ways (including affecting both healing time and susceptibility to infection). There is widespread recognition of the importance of nutritional assessment tools, however, completion can sometimes be overlooked in practice. Healthcare professionals also need to be aware that obesity may be accompanied by micronutrient deficiency causing low micronutrient levels, however, nutritional assessment tools using body mass index (BMI) and weight loss may not identify this. Although there are intervention studies using nutritional formulations, such as amino acids, to support wound healing, the results of this review suggest that future research around using food as therapy and specific nutritional supplementation is needed.