[Considerations after 10 years of treating leg ulcers]

There are four times as many varicose ulcers as arterial ulcers, this being basically the case of patients over 50. Venous thrombosis is responsible for about one-third of the varicose ulcers, and atherosis causes more than one-third of the arterial ulcers. The latter often involve metabolic disorders: this is not the case with varicose ulcers. When there is superinfection, pyocyanic is rampant and is followed by yellow staphylococci. Arterial ulcers are very often painful and cicatrisation is slow, often even hopeless, whereas varicose ulcers heal when the responsible varices are cured.