Therapeutic effects of pregnancy on a chronic skin ulcer.

OBJECTIVES

Sex hormones strongly influence skin physiology and evidences suggest wound healing as well. Estrogens establish a prohealing setting, and androgens play an antagonist role.

METHODS AND

RESULTS

We present the case of a young woman in whom pregnancy with its associated hormonal shifts allowed the spontaneous healing of a chronic wound on the left leg with bone exposure, which had followed a car accident and had resisted medical and surgical treatments for 5 years.

DISCUSSION: Systemic or topical estrogens may offer alternative options in the therapy of chronic wounds, in particular in the elderly adults who have physiologically reduced estrogens levels.