UTILIZING SURVIVAL ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES IN CHRONIC WOUND-HEALING STUDIES

To both the patient and physician, how long a chronic wound takes to h eal is as important as whether or not it heals at all. Survival analys is methods can be used to assess healing over time to provide a more c omplete understanding of the effects of treatments and a more sensitiv e way to detect treatments which facilitate wound repair. Multivariate survival methods can be used to identify prognostic factors and devel op a comprehensive model for predicting the rate of healing based on w ound characteristics, general clinical presentation of the patient, an d demographic factors. These statistical methods will be discussed in the context of a companion article titled ''Predictors of Time to Heal ing Deep Pressure Ulcers'' which is also in this issue of WOUNDS to pr ovide an example of the use of these methods.