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Case Study/Series
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Evaluation of an advanced treatment (amelogenin) on hard-to-heal venous leg ulcers that have not responded to standard therapy First Author: Claire Acton Authors: Claire Acton, TVN Patients with "Hard to Heal" wounds such as Venous Leg Ulcers have been prospectively defined as those with ulcers of greater than 12 months duration and/or older than six months (1). Additionally ulcers of long duration are 2.4 times more expensive to treat than small ulcers and ulcers of short duration (2). Such patients may therefore require advanced therapies in order to successfully treat their ulcers. An advanced wound treatment using Amelogenin a 20kDa extracellular matrix protein, has been adapted from periodontal disease (3) management for use in chronic wounds (4), it has been designed to optimise healing by providing a temporary extracellular matrix protein for cell attachment. Thereby restoration of the cellular and biochemical balance is facilitated in the hard to heal wound, which will promote granulation tissue formation and normal wound healing. This advanced therapy was evaluated at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich, UK on five patients that had hard to heal venous leg ulcers ranging from months to years. The advanced therapy successfully healed the majority of the patients, and even those that did not go on to heal fully but demonstrated significant advances in the quality of the wound bed, such that they could be subsequently treated by grafting. |
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