[Leg ulcer: proposal of a new method for comparing different wound dressings]

The study proposes a new method for measuring peripheral trophic lesions (leg ulcers) of the same patient medicated with different type of dressing, avoiding errors of evaluation due to comparing different patients who generally present different concomitant pathologies and aetiologies wigh are hard to compare. We studied the wound care of 11 patients with leg ulcers. Half of the ulceration was treated with a traditional dressing (group A) and the other half with a more advanced type of dressing (group B). We first photographed the ulceration at a predefined distance an then the ulcer was separated in two identical parts and measured with millimetre paper. The limits and sides of each part were marked with a indelible marker pencil. The dressings were changed at regular interval and the ulcers were re-measured and photographed every week from the same distance. We examined 19 ulcers of the 11 patients (7 men, 4 women; mean age: 71 years). Although wound healing appeared to be faster in group B, the difference was not statistically significant (p = 0,246), but the aim of the study was not to explore the difference or otherwise in healing rate between two dressings. The study confirms that this method enables the physician to compare two different wound care dressings on the same ulcer. Interpatient variability is thus avoided by applying the dressings to the same ulcer. Changes in ulcer size are easily monitored and the statistical analysis of the areas compared allows objective assessment of the wound treatments, avoiding the common bias due to comparing different ulcers on different patients with different underlying pathologies.