ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

Acta Vulnologica 2007 March;5(1):19-27

Copyright © 2007 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: Italian

Wound care surgery: characteristics of a group of patients with chronic wounds

Corradin M. T., Fava C., Marcuz G.

Unità Operativa di Dermatologia Azienda Ospedaliera di Pordenone, Pordenone

Aim. The aim of the study was to photograph the situation at the Wound Care Surgery of the Dermatology Unit at the Santa Maria degli Angli Hospital of Pordenone, identifying the main characteristics of patients admitted to the Surgery in the course of a given period of time.
Methods. One hundred patients who consecutively attended the Surgery between September and November 2006 were analyzed. Various parameters were studied for all patients. Some regarded the characteristics of the patient (age, sex, basic pathologies, concomitant treatments), others the nature of the wound (localization, etiological diagnosis, topical treatments, recurrence). The results were graphed.
Results. The data obtained enabled us to draw a picture of the main characteristics of our patients. Women come to our Surgery more frequently than men (64% of the total). The commonest pathology was venous ulcer, as described in the literature. Unlike what is reported, however, vasculitic ulcers are also relatively frequent, representing 11% of our statistics, on a par with ischaemic ulcers, and they affected females in particular (82% of cases). The most affected age band was that between 70 and 90 in the case of women and 60 to 80 in the case of men. A fair percentage of ulcerative wounds for which consultancy was needed presented post-traumatic onset. It is interesting to note that within this group almost half the patients did not evidence signs of underlying arterial or venous pathology. Among our patients, a high number (about 43%) in the period of ulcer treatment were taking drugs that delayed clinical cure to some extent. As for the topical therapies, the products we utilized were hydrocolloids, hydrofibers and cadexomer iodine. We noted significant differences in the response to the various topical products; according to our data post-traumatic ulcers were those that responded best to topical treatment with hydrocolloids. On the other hand, hydrocolloids created the greatest sensitization problems. We would point out, finally, that in our series the percentage of recurring wounds (about 69%) was unfortunately very high.
Conclusion. We thought it important to report our data because not many studies have been published showing what the real situation is in Italian Wound Care Surgeries either as regards the type of patients treated or as regards the treatments employed. We hope that in future a kind of census may be carried out on the various situations existing with a view to better describing the identikits of patients with chronic wounds.