Lower‐extremity ulcers: diagnosis and management

Chronic wounds of the lower extremities are occurring with increasing prevalence. They affect millions of individuals annually, representing both a significant health risk and a large economic burden. Chronic wounds are associated with increased mortality and substantial morbidity due to infection, pain, limitation of daily activities, and psychosocial consequences. To manage these wounds effectively, clinicians must be able to diagnose and manage their aetiology. Diagnosis starts with determining whether the wound is one of the four most common chronic wounds: venous leg ulcers, diabetic foot ulcers, pressure ulcers and arterial ulcers. Moreover, despite many recent advances in wound care, the challenge of managing chronic wounds is complicated by the lack of consistently accepted diagnostic methods and wound-care standards. We present a comprehensive yet condensed approach to managing lower-extremity ulcers, from diagnosis to basic management

Wound Dressings: A Comprehensive Review

This comprehensive review covers the advantage and limitations of some dressing materials and the current knowledge on wound dressings and emerging technologies to achieve proper wound healing.Traditional and modern dressings are helpful in the wound healing process; however, they cannot substitute lost tissue. Human skin equivalents have been developed conceptually to fill this void as they do not only facilitate wound healing but also may replace lost tissue. Several studies have shown that the addition of mesenchymal stem cells, such as in human placenta, has promising results in wound healing.A wound is defined as a disruption in the continuity of the skin or mucosa due to physical or thermal damage, or an underlying medical condition. Wound healing is a complex, dynamic, and multistep process which occurs after skin damage leading to tissue repair. Although the skin normally undergoes repair after a disruption, the healing process can be affected in different conditions such as diabetes mellitus, infections, venous/arterial insufficiency, among others. To enhance healing, a wide range of wound dressings are available; however, a thorough wound assessment (e.g., wound type, size, depth, or color) is required to choose the appropriate dressing. The emergence of new dressings has brought a new perspective of wound healing, but there is no superior product yet to treat acute and/or chronic wounds. Therefore, wound dressing research studies need to be carried out in order to help improve wound healing