Ostomy/wound management
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Ostomy/wound management · Jan 2015
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter StudyA prospective, randomized, controlled trial comparing the effects of noncontact, low-frequency ultrasound to standard care in healing venous leg ulcers.
Current scientific evidence suggests venous leg ulcers (VLUs) that do not respond to guideline-defined care may have a wound microenvironment that is out of physiological balance. A prospective, randomized, controlled, multicenter trial was conducted to compare percent wound size reduction, proportions healed, pain, and quality-of-life (QOL) outcomes in patients randomized to standard care (SC) alone or SC and 40 kHz noncontact, low-frequency ultrasound (NLFU) treatments 3 times per week for 4 weeks. One hundred, twelve (112) eligible participants with documented venous stasis, a VLU >30 days' duration, measuring 4 cm2 to 50 cm2, and demonstrated arterial flow were enrolled. ⋯ Reductions in median (65.7% versus 44.4%, P = 0.02) and absolute wound area (9.0 cm2 versus 4.1 cm2, P = 0.003) as well as pain scores (from 3.0 to 0.6 versus 3.0 to 2.4, P = 0.01) were also significant. NLFU therapy with guideline-defined standard VLU care should be considered for healing VLUs not responding to SC alone. The results of this study warrant further research on barriers to healing and the changes occurring in the tissue of the wound to explore theories that the microenvironment impacts wounds that do not heal despite provision of guideline-defined care.