Management of leg ulcers in patients with chronic venous insufficiency: the experience of a Dermatology Clinic in Bucharest, Romania.

Venous ulcers are the most severe skin manifestation of chronic venous insufficiency. Treatment is complex and it is performed according to the stage of the disease. It includes changes of lifestyle, compressive therapy, phlebotropic medication, topical therapy of the ulcer, antibiotic therapy (topical and systemic), sclerotherapy, and surgical treatment. Patients with venous leg ulcers that attend the Second Dermatology Clinic of Colentina Clinical Hospital, are treated both as inpatients and as outpatients. They benefit from topical treatment and bandaging performed by specialized medical personnel in separate treatment room with strictly monitored conditions of asepsis and antisepsis. A follow-up study of these patients was made from January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2011. The average age of patients was 65.9 years (± 14.2), most of them being in the eight decade of life (31.9%). In almost half of the cases (44.2%), the patients spent more than 1 week in the hospital. Bacteriological investigations from the ulcers were performed in 55.1% of patients and the most frequent infectious agents were found to be Staphylococcus aureus (26.3%) and Enterobacter spp. (17.2%). Treatment of leg ulcer patients proves to be a long and complex one, a systematic and organized approach being needed in order to obtain healing of the wound.