[Chronic wounds as a public health problem]

Chronic wounds represent a significant burden to patients, health care professionals and the entire health care system. Regarding the healing process, wounds can be classified as acute or chronic wounds. A wound is considered chronic if healing does not occur within the expected period according to the wound etiology and localization. Chronic wounds can be classified as typical and atypical. The majority of wounds (95 percent) are typical ones, which include ischemic, neurotrophic and hypostatic ulcers and two separate entities: diabetic foot and decubital ulcers. Eighty percent of chronic wounds localized on lower leg are the result of chronic venous insufficiency, in 5-10 percent the cause is of arterial etiology, whereas the rest are mostly neuropathic ulcers. Chronic wounds significantly decrease the quality of life of patients by requiring continuous topical treatment, causing immobility and pain in a high percentage of patients. Chronic wounds affect elderly population. Chronic leg ulcers affect 0.6-3 percent of those aged over 60, increasing to over 5 percent of those aged over 80. Emergence of chronic wounds is a substantial socioeconomic problem as 1-2 percent of western population will suffer from it. This estimate is expected to rise due to the increasing proportion of elderly population along with the diabetic and obesity epidemic. It has been proved that chronic wounds account for the large proportion of costs in the health care system, even in rich societies. Socioeconomically, the management of chronic wounds reaches a total of 2-4 percent of the health budget in western countries. Treatment costs for some other diseases are not irrelevant, nor are the method and materials used for treating these wounds. Considering etiologic factors, a chronic wound demands a multidisciplinary approach with great efforts of health care professionals to treat it more efficiently, more simply and more painlessly for the patient, as well as more inexpensively for health care funds.