A STUDY OF PREVALENCE, CLINICAL PRESENTATION AND MANAGEMENT OF LOWER LIMB ULCERS AT A TERTIARY HOSPITAL

Background: Lower limb ulcers are debilitating and painful, greatly reducing patients quality of life. These ulcers are often difficult to treat. The most common aetiologies for lower limb ulcers are venous, arterial, mixed venous and arterial, diabetic and pressure ulcers. However, atypical wounds comprise approximately 20% of chronic wounds and should be kept in mind during differential diagnosis.The successful ulcer management depends upon the accurate diagnosis and treatment of the underlying cause, and it often needs a multidisciplinary approach. Methods: This prospective cross-sectional study conductedin Department of General Surgery atBasaveshwara Teaching and General Hospital, Attached to Mahadevappa Rampure Medical College, Kalaburagi. The study was conducted during the period from June 2022 to December 2023 which included 97 patients presenting withlower limb ulcers and admitted in surgical wards of our hospital. Results: Most of the patients were engaged in agriculture (24%) followed by business (23%) and service (14%). 47.5% of the patients had habit of smoking,alcohol consumption and tobacco chewing. Most of the ulcers were diabetic (36.1%) followed by venous (22.6%) (Z=2.17 p=0). Only 4.1% and 3.1% were malignant and trophic ulcers. Peripheral neuropathy (26.8%) was the most common cause of ulcer followed by venous hypertension (24.7%).In most of the cases, debridement with dressing (32.9%) and Debreidment+dressing+skin grafting (19.6%) was done. At the end of study period, 90 ulcers were healed, 4 were disease free, 2 had recurrence and 1 patient died. Conclusion:A comprehensive assessment of patients general status, personal habits, skin, vascular status, limb, ulcer characteristics are required to determine the etiology and to formulate effective treatment plan. Thus, the study of various cases of lower limb ulcers arouses lot of interest and is mind boggling as far as the treatment of these cases are concerned. With the availability of arsenal of investigation, wide range of antibiotics and with ever improving dressing material, there is certainly a great improvement in treatment of lower limb ulcers. Education and training are vital for all those involved in caring of patients with ulcer.