TFCP system: a novel framework for evaluating the effectiveness of skin wound treatment

Abstract

Acute and chronic skin wounds, including defects and ulcers, represent a prevalent clinical challenge in increasing morbidity. With advancements in treatment technologies such as skin wound care and surgical repair, treatment effectiveness has constantly shown improvement. However, assessments of treatment efficacy have typically relied on measures involving primary or secondary healing and subsequent basic functional evaluations. Unfortunately, the degree of cosmetic improvement and the level of pain during diagnosis and treatment have often been overlooked. So, the current assessment methods and results are far from meeting the assessment needs of the injured in terms of self-care, work ability, and confidence recovery. Consequently, some wounds that should be promptly repaired do not receive timely or optimal treatment, resulting in prolonged total treatment times, painful treatment experiences, residual scarring, or functional and aesthetic impacts from remaining scars or skin grafts (flaps). To address these issues, we propose a new therapeutic effect evaluation system (TFCP system), which encompass treatment duration (T), functional recovery (F) (complete, significant, basic, none), cosmetic outcome (C) (regenerative rejuvenation repair, rejuvenation repair, cosmetic repair, disfiguration), and pain level (P) (none, mild, moderate, severe). The TFCP system can be used to predict and ultimately evaluate the therapeutic effects of various skin wounds, thereby promoting the adoption of concepts and technologies related to cosmetic repair and comfortable diagnosis and treatment. Ultimately, this will help improve the effectiveness of skin wound treatment.