The limerick leg-ulcer project: Early results

Nurse led clinics in joint hospital and community settings are now being ad vocated as the most effective and economic way of dealing with leg ulcers, However little information exists on the profile and outcome of patients wi th venous ulcers treated either in the community or in the hospital setting , Over a 2 yr period we assessed 134 patients with leg ulcers of whom 122 w ere deemed suitable for compression bandaging therapy. Thirty-four patients (28 per cent) were treated by the newly developed community service and 88 (72 per cent) were treated at the hospital clinic. Our overall healing rat e for venous ulcers was 50 per cent @ 40 weeks. This probably reflects the long duration (48 per cent > 2 yr) and large size (0.5-608 cm(2)) of ulcer prior to treatment. There were no differences in outcome between hospital ( 50 per cent @ 40 weeks) and community (35 per cent @ 40 weeks) based treatm ent (p>0.05). We conclude that most venous ulcers can be effectively treate d in the community and resources should be provided to achieve this goal.