Assessing Postpartum Perineal Wound Healing: A Comparison between Digital Imaging with MATLAB and the REEDA Scale
Keywords:
healing, mother, perineal, postpartum, woundAbstract
OBJECTIVE: To compare the assessment of postpartum perineal wound healing using a digital imaging perineal wound scanner (integrated with MATLAB data processing) versus the traditional REEDA (redness, ecchymosis, edema, discharge, approximation) clinical observation scale.
METHODOLOGY: Utilizing a quasi-experimental pre-post design without a control group, the researchers applied non-parametric statistical tests: the Wilcoxon signed-rank test for paired data to assess the same subjects using both methods, and the Mann-Whitney U test to compare healing outcomes. The research was conducted at the Pantai Cermin Health Centre in Serdang Bedagai Regency with an initial sample of 50 postpartum women recruited through purposive sampling from July to October 2021. Inclusion criteria specified participants with grade 2 perineal wounds, while those with diabetes or other relevant comorbidities were excluded. Ultimately, 45 subjects' images were used for analysis, after 5 were dropped due to processing issues. The assessment was performed on postpartum mothers on days 2 and 10, encompassing imaging techniques alongside observations via the REEDA scale.
RESULTS: The results indicated statistically significant differences in mean wound-healing scores between the two methods on the analyzed days. The REEDA method showed a greater wound improvement percentage of 56.10 compared to 34.90 for the MATLAB method, with a significance level of P < 0.05.
CONCLUSION: Digital imaging is the latest innovation for assessing the condition of perineal wounds, enabling rapid determination of treatment strategies.
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