Treatment of Venous Ulcers with Cronocol® implants – analysis of 10 cases

Abstract

Chronic venous insufficiency (CVI) of lower limbs is a health problem with a clear negative social impact in Portugal and worldwide. Venous ulcer is a major reason for work absenteeism. Its physiopathology is not well known, has a natural history of healing and recurrence, and a difficult healing process that is time and money consuming for health care facilities. The goal was to clinically 10 pa- tients with chronic venous ulcer, painful on the inclusion date and resistant to other treatments, without other associated pathologies, treated with Cronocol® implants. Three parameters were evaluated: pain, treatment continuity, cicatrisation. As outpatients, they had the implants applied on a weekly basis, dry gauze applied over them and elastic bandage of the leg. Data of the evolution with other treatments before Cronocol®, always including elastic compression, were used as control group. In the first ten patients (aged from 57 to 82) there was a painless condition after 1 to 3 dressings, clear weekly improvement, which the patients themselves pointed out, and complete healing was reached in 2 to 27 weeks, not forgetting the previous long evolution of up to 240 weeks without evidence of improvement. As conclusions, Cronocol® implant significantly improved the quality of life of patients with venous ulcers, contributed to cicatrisation of those resistant to other treatments, and in fact decreased expenses in health care with this pathology.

Keywords: Leg ulcer, venous ulcer, chronic venous insufficiency, Cronocol®, collagen, gentamicin, metalloproteinases