Strategies and challenges in the treatment of chronic venous leg ulcers

Evaluating patients with chronic venous leg ulcers(CVLUs)is essential to find the underlying etiology.The basic tenets in managing CVLUs are to remove the etiological causes,to address systemic and metabolic conditions,to examine the ulcers and artery pulses,and to control wound infection with debridement and eliminating excessive pressure on the wound.The first-line treatments of CVLUs remain wound care,debridement,bed rest with leg elevation,and compression.Evidence to support the efficacy of silver-based dressings in healing CVLUs is unavailable.Hydrogen peroxide is harmful to the growth of granulation tissue in the wound.Surgery options include a high ligation with or without stripping or ablation of the GSVs depending on venous reflux or insufficiency.Yet,not all CVLUs are candidates for surgical treatment because of comorbidities.When standard care of wound for 4 wk failed to heal CVLUs effectively,use of advanced wound care should be considered based on the available evidence.Negative pressure wound therapy facilitates granulation tissue development,thereby helping closure of CVLUs.Autologous split-thickness skin grafting is still the gold standard approach to close huge CVLUs.Hair punch graft appears to have a better result than traditional hairless punch graft for CVLUs.Application of adipose tissue or placenta-derived mesenchymal stem cells is a promising therapy for wound healing.Autologous platelet-rich plasma provides an alternative strategy for surgery for safe and natural healing of the ulcer.The confirmative efficacy of current advanced ulcer therapies needs more robust evidence.

Development of an accurate nursing program based on function in chronic venous leg ulcers:protocol for matching function status with nursing interventions using the Delphi survey

Objective: Venous leg ulceration(VLU) is one of the complications of lower extremity venous reflux and reflux disorder of severe diseases, with many adverse effects on patient’s work and life. Nowadays, more and more patients with VLU accept wound care in community setting. Clinical nurses generally take care of the patients based on their own experiences. Healing in VLU is an incredibly complex process, which puzzles even experts. The majority of general nurses do not have this level of expertise, especially those nurses serving in community. Function is the basis of nursing activities. Patients always show different clinical manifestations and selfcare abilities due to various function states, which cannot be reflected completely by the existing nursing practice. How to describe nursing practice standardized in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of interventions and facilitate interdisciplinary communication is another urgent problem. Therefore, the aim of this project is to develop an accurate nursing program based on function in chronic venous leg ulcers, which can both satisfy the needs of patients and promote nursing revolution.Methods: This study will use International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health as a framework to choose suitable functions and to filter function classification standards of chronic venous leg ulcers through evidence-based systematic research.Nursing interventions related to VLU are selected based on Nursing Interventions Classification, adding other nursing activities by methods of evidence-based systematic review and clinical observation. Then, nursing interventions and function status are matched through steering committee. Finally, the Delphi survey method is adopted to make nursing program native and scientific.Conclusions: This study is expected to be very significant and meaningful in using standardized nursing terminology. The nursing program established could better meet the needs of both patients with chronic venous leg ulcers and clinical nurses, promoting the development of wound specialist and standardized nursing language.

Meta analysis of clinical efficacy of combination of traditional Chinese and western medicine in the treatment of venous ulcer of lower extremities

Objective: To test the therapeutic effect of integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine on venous ulcer of lower limbs by Meta analysis method, and then to propose the best clinical treatment scheme. Methods: Domestic databases in the past 20 years (January 1999-December 2019) were searched by computer, including China Journal Full-text Database (CNKI), VIP, Wanfang and CBM. Literature was screened according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. Cochrane risk assessment tool was used to evaluate the quality of the included literature. Two-classification method was used to extract data. RevMan 5.3 software was used to make statistical analysis of the data. Results: Eleven articles were finally included, totaling 1,576 patients, 804 cases in the treatment group and 772 cases in the control group. Meta-analysis results show that there is no difference in heterogeneity and bias among the included literatures. The total effective rate (risk ratio [RR]=1.12, 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.09-1.15) of integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine in treating venous ulcer of lower limbs is higher, which is obviously better than that of western medicine alone. Conclusion: Through data analysis, it is concluded that in the study population, the treatment of integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine has a significant effect on venous ulcer of lower limbs. Make up for the deficiency of simple western medicine treatment, improve the cure rate and reduce the recurrence rate. However, there is currently a lack of relevant high-quality literature, so a large sample size, rigorous and standardized experimental design and randomized double-blind clinical study are needed to further test the conclusions.

Micropunch grafting for healing of refractory chronic venous leg ulcers

Background: Chronic venous ulcers are a serious problem for both patients and physicians. The CEAP classification(clinical manifestations(C), etiologic factors(E), anatomic distribution of disease(A), and underlying pathophysiologic findings(P)) for chronic venous disorders(CVD) was developed in 1994. Published papers on CVD use all or part of the CEAP. Micropunch grafts, which are a variation of skin grafts, have been used with great success in plastic surgery for both esthetic and reconstructive purposes. This study aimed to assess the outcomes of micropunch grafting in the treatment of chronic refractory venous ulcers.Methods: Patients with chronic venous ulcers who did not respond to conservative treatment for more than 6months were included in the study. All patients underwent ulcer coverage by micropunch skin grafts using a micrometer. The patients were discharged on the same day as the surgery. Micropunch skin grafts were manually counted per square centimeter intraoperatively and during follow-up using Dermlite DermatoschopeTM II Pro HR.Patient satisfaction was assessed by using a questionnaire.Results: Twenty patients underwent the surgery. Most of the patients were middle-aged males. The ulcers were predominantly small-and medium-sized. The mean operation time was 167.00 ± 86.01 min. After 6 months, the survival rate of the planted micrografts was 84%. Three ulcers had graft loss and two patients had an infection at the ulcer site, which was managed conservatively. The patients were followed-up for 14 months.Conclusion: Micropunch grafting is a useful and convenient method for the treatment of difficult venous ulcers and can be performed on an outpatient basis.