Management of venous ulcer disease.

A venous leg ulcer represents the severe end of the spectrum of chronic venous disease. Venous ulcers are the most common form of leg ulcer. Observational studies have reported the prevalence of venous leg ulcers to be 1-1.5%. 2 A cross sectional study of a random sample of 1566 people aged 18-64 years from an urban Scottish population estimated the prevalence of venous leg ulcers to be around 1%. The estimated total treatment costs of venous leg ulcers are 1% of the total annual healthcare budget in western European countries. In the United States, treatment costs for venous ulcers in more than 6 million patients approach $2.5bn (£1.6bn; €1.8bn), and two million work days are lost annually because of venous ulcer disease. A recent prospective study performed in 23 specialised wound centres throughout Germany calculated the mean total cost of a venous ulcer per patient per year to be €9569 (€8658 (92%) direct costs and €911 (8%) indirect costs). Treatment is either conservative (bed rest, leg elevation, local treatment, and compression) or surgical (superficial and perforating vein ablation and deep vein reconstruction). This review examines the prevention and treatment of venous leg ulcers and is based mostly on evidence from observational studies and some reviews and m eta-analyses.