What's the true costs of wounds faced by different healthcare systems around the world?

For many wound carers globally getting a handle on the costs associated with the management of chronic wounds is difficult, if not impossible. There are some published figures geographically but most of these are not ‘standardised’ to permit comparison easily or directly. One consistent theme from a number of these studies, however,1-12 is that they relate the costs of wounds, extrapolated or otherwise, to the total geographic healthcare costs. This provides a percentage figure as a benchmark. While most of these studies capture or measure their wound care costs differently making a direct comparison between geographies difficult, they at least provide some measure to permit a comparison. Another weakness of any comparison between studies or geographies is the time frame of measurement. Indeed, a simple literature search shows both the paucity of data generally, in some geographies and the outdatedness of the data in others. Cost studies are tedious, difficult, lengthy and expensive, as such they are seldom carried out. Due to the difficulties of capturing such cost data most of these studies caution their results as an underestimate of the costs involved.13 With that in mind the IWJ editors decided to provide an annual appraisal of the likely wound care costs by geographical area around the world. The data presented in Table 1 provides an estimate of the likely costs of wounds within most of the countries of the world. This provides an international picture of the possible costs of wounds. We will endeavour to update this annually to provide more up-to-date figures for those interested. While our computation may not be highly scientific, it provides an indication of the likely costs of wounds. These figures can be validated by others locally, but we feel they provide a starting point for those requiring some indication of their costs. We welcome any input from those involved in such costing studies around the world, perhaps providing a deeper insight. We are happy for others to refine our figures geography by geography providing a more accurate costing where possible. The authors declare no conflict of interest. The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.