[Expert system to support the decision in topical therapy for venous ulcers]

Although the treatment of venous ulcers requires a set of specific knowledge, non-specialist nurses are unaware of the appropriate therapy, which is a concern in the topical therapy for these skin lesions. This paper aims to present an expert system to support the nursing decision making process in the topical therapy of venous ulcers. It is a development research implemented in five stages: system modeling, knowledge acquisition, knowledge representation from production rules, and system implementation and evaluation. The production rules are presented as well as some cases to simulate the expert system behavior, demonstrating the viability of its usage in nurse's practice. The system may support the decision making about the topical therapy of venous ulcers. However, ulcer evaluation should be correctly made, so that the system provides appropriate suggestions, allowing better organization and planning assistance.