Validating 3D Laser Triangulation Technology into an Advanced Wound Care Practice

Introduction: Advanced wound care practices require effective, reproducible wound assessments to monitor treatment efficacy.1 Wounds are commonly measured manually, which can be time-consuming, inaccurate, and subjective.2 Advanced three-dimensional (3D) wound measurement tools are available. It is unclear if such 3D products, in comparison to calculations generated by electronic health record (EHR) equations, have clinical relevance. This study examined serial wound measurements taken manually versus a commercially available 3D camera*.

Methods: Thirty-four (34) individual patients had 71 wound measurements obtained manually by a single provider and inputted into EPIC (Epic Systems Corporation, Verona, WI) versus paired measurements from the Silhouette ® Star 3D Camera* (Aranz Medical, LTD; Christchurch, New Zealand). The metrics of wound length, width, depth, area and volume were compared. Values on scatterplots had correlation determined by r-squared calculations with paired two-tailed t-tests to determine significance in Excel (Microsoft, Seattle, WA).

Results: All 71 measurements had wound length, width, depth, area and volume compared. Area (r2 = 0.822) and length (r2 = 0.951) were highly correlated between manual and 3D camera* measurements

Conclusion: Compared to manual measurements, 3D technology showed strong correlation in wound area, length, and width, but not wound depth nor volume. Manual wound volume estimations were on average 3 times higher than the 3D camera*, suggesting clinically significant inaccuracy. 3D wound technology provides reliable, reproducible and accurate wound surveillance. This technology offers versatility at the hospital bedside, the operating room, and clinic for both clinical and research applications.