It's not just a wound...
An ongoing challenge in wound management is a belief that wounds are temporary, routine, and merely physical. However, wounds can be very complex ethically which, in turn, necessitates careful and sensitive attention by practitioners. Five clinical cases are analyzed in terms of their ethical and legal implications. More specifically, concepts such as informed consent, surrogate decision-making, compliance, intimacy, embodiment, stigma, and bodily memory are examined. Following the conceptual analyses are recommendations for responsive clinical practice.