OBJECTIVE To assess the clinical effectiveness of weekly delivery of low dose, high frequency therapeutic ultrasound in conjunction with standard care for hard to heal venous leg ulcers. DESIGN Multicentre, pragmatic, two arm randomised controlled trial. SETTING Community and district nurse led services, community leg ulcer clinics, and hospital outpatient leg ulcer clinics in 12 urban and ...

OBJECTIVE To study if the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in patients with venous leg ulcer is higher than in the control population. METHODS Serum levels of 25 hidroxi (OH)-vitamin D3 was studied by chemiluminescence in 27 patients with chronic venous ulcer and 58 controls at the Evangelical Hospital of Curitiba. RESULTS The levels of 25 OH-vitamin D3 were below 8 ng/dl in 11.1% of ulce...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the prognostic factors in uncomplicated venous leg ulcer healing. DESIGN Randomised parallel group controlled trial with subjects stratified by initial ulcer diameter and four months' maximum duration of follow up. SETTING Assessment at Northwick Park Hospital vascular unit with community based treatment. PATIENTS 200 patients with clinical and objective evidence of ...

BACKGROUND Venous leg ulcer is a chronic condition, and various treatment modalities are available. Platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) is one of the newer modalities and it contains fibroblast growth factor (GF), vascular endothelial GF, angiopoitin and platelet-derived GF which enhances the wound healing. Hence, we conducted a randomised controlled trial to compare the efficacy of PRF versus saline dr...

OBJECTIVE The aim was to establish the potential efficacy, tolerability and side-effect profile of electromagnetic therapy as an adjunct to conventional dressings in the treatment of venous leg ulcers. METHOD A prospective, randomized, double blind controlled clinical trial was carried out in a dedicated leg ulcer clinic based in one urban general practice. Nineteen patients with leg ulcers o...

BACKGROUND Venous leg ulceration is a common and costly problem that is expected to worsen as the population ages. Current treatment is compression therapy; however, up to 50 % of ulcers remain unhealed after 2 years, and ulcer recurrence is common. New treatments are needed to address those wounds that are more challenging to heal. Targeting the inflammatory processes present in venous ulcers ...

Sulodexide, a highly purified glycosaminoglycan, was investigated for treatment of venous leg ulcers. Patients (n = 235) undergoing local treatment including wound care and compression bandaging, were randomised to receive either sulodexide or matching placebo for three months. Primary study endpoint was complete ulcer healing after 2 months; secondary endpoints were ulcer healing at 3 months a...

This report describes a 78-year old male patient with a chronic venous ulcer on his left leg for the past 24 years, complicated by a squamous-cell carcinoma. After staging of the disease, the treatment administered was amputation of the leg above the knee. Marjolin's ulcer consists of the malignant transformation of a chronic ulcerative lesion. It is a relatively rare phenomenon. The malignant ...

OBJECTIVE To analyze the relation between vitamin D insufficiency and wound healing in patients with venous ulcers; to correlate vitamin D insufficiency with characteristics of the ulcer (size and pain) and to evaluate if reposition of vitamin D in these subjects expedites ulcer healing. METHODS We selected 26 patients with leg ulcers, and 26 control patients without ulcers, matched for gende...