Treating leg ulcers within two weeks by closing faulty veins improves healing by 12% compared to standard treatment, according to new findings.
Treating leg ulcers within two weeks by closing faulty veins improves healing by 12% compared to standard treatment, according to new findings.
The research, led by Imperial College London and funded by the National Institute for Health Research, studied 450 UK patients with the most common type of leg ulcers known as venous ulcers.
These ulcers are caused by bad circulation in the lower leg and often due to faulty veins in the leg called varicose veins. These allow blood to flow in the wrong direction – towards the lower legs and feet. This causes blood pressure to rises in veins in the lower leg, and these vessels swell and damage the skin.
This leads to painful open sores that take many months to heal, or in some cases never heal. It is estimated that the NHS manages 731,000 leg ulcers each year, the majority of which are venous. These leg ulcers are more common in obese people, and in the elderly – around one in 50 people over the age of 80 are thought to have a venous leg ulcer.
Read more at Imperial College London
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