Hospitals in the US are increasingly concerned with the rising number of hospital-acquired pressure ulcers. To reduce its 2002-2003 average hospital-acquired pressure ulcer prevalence rate of 9.2%, a regional medical center in southeastern US initiated a process improvement and education program. Quarterly pressure ulcer prevalence studies were conducted and the Medical Intensive Care Unit was ...

Chronic wounds like venous calf and diabetic foot ulcers are frequently contaminated and colonized by bacteria and it remains unclear whether there is sufficient expression of defensins and recruitment of epidermal Langerhans cells in the margin of ulcer compared to normal skin. The aim of this study was to examine immunohistochemically the expression of beta-defensin-2 (hBD2), GM-CSF, VEGF gro...

“Marjolin’s ulcer”refers to malignancies that developed in chronic venous ulcers, scars, or sinuses (1, 2). These malignancies also arise from various scars, including chronic ulcerations, inflammation, and fistulas after a long period of latency. Malignant transformation takes approximately 35 years. The incidence of malignant skin tumors that developed from scar tissue is 0.1-2.5%. Burn scars...

PURPOSE To summarize clinical and empirical knowledge about pressure ulcers in infants and children and to describe an approach developed at Children's Hospital, Boston, to prevent and manage pressure ulcers. POPULATION Acutely ill children with potential or actual alteration in skin integrity due to pressure ulcers. CONCLUSIONS The three-pronged approach for pressure ulcer prevention and m...

Knowledge of an individual's skin condition is important for pressure ulcer prevention. Detecting early changes in skin through perfusion, oxygen saturation values, and pressure on tissue and subsequent therapeutic intervention could increase patients' quality of life drastically. However, most existing sensing options create additional risk of ulcer development due to further pressure on and c...

Ehlers-Danlos syndrome type VIII (EDS-VIII) is a very rare autosomal dominant disease characterized by early-onset periodontitis associated with features of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. We report a 32-year-old man whose chronic leg ulcer led to the diagnosis of EDS-VIII. He had severe periodontitis with complete loss of permanent teeth and skin fragility with thin skin, atrophic scars, and brownish ...

that of other agents. It is likely to be beneficial in the modulation of the disease activity while having a positive effect on the skin graft on the ulcer in this case. In the case reported here, a split thickness skin graft on the lower extremity ulcer associated with Sneddon’s syndrome took successfully. The other lesions healed and satisfactory results were obtained. Due to the extremely ra...

Post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD) is associated with a variety of clinical presentations, but rarely involves the skin. We herein report a case of PTLD presenting with skin ulceration in a renal transplant recipient. A biopsy of the ulcer confirmed the diagnosis of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. The patient was initially treated with immunosuppression reduction, but the skin u...