Abstract:
The Wound Care Unit of the department for Surgery, University of Tübingen, Germany invited 143 formal patients to an re-examination for eventual recurrence of wounds, that had formerly healed under treatment in Tübingen. 54 patients were re-examined, 13 women (24%) und 41 men (74%). 22 patients had experienced a recurrence, representing a recurrence rate of 40,7%. In total 64,8% of the examined patients were diabetics, 14,8% of the patients were suffering of CVI, and 18,5% were suffering of a combination of diabetes and CVI. Age, diagnosis or the anamnesis time for the basic diagnosis, the fact of treating a prime wound or the time between primal healing and recurrence were in these groups not significantly differing.
The patients were in average 63,1±9,6 [40-88] years of age. The mean anamnesis time of was in average 19,3±10,8 years in diabetics. The participating patients had suffered in average 23,3±9,2 years of CVI, in the group with the combined diagnosis the average anamnesis time was 14±8,3 years. The anamneses sick time of the primary wound was median 14,2 [2-73] months. The 54 patients had in total 75 wounds.
The average time of the 22 recurrent wounds was median 7,5 [2-120] weeks in the group of diabetic patients, 4 [2-19] weeks in the CVI patient group and 6 [3-72] weeks in the group with the combined diagnosis. The wounds became recurrent in median 17,4 [2-83] weeks after the primary healing. The recurrence occurred in 72,7% of the patients at the same localisation, in 25% at another region on the equal side of the body. 3 patients had multiple recurrent wounds. All recurrences were treated in a conservative manner. In 4 cases a debridement was performed and once an amputation. Healing of the recurrent wound occurred in 14 cases (66,6%), 7 of the recurrent wounds (33,4%) were still existent at re-examination 12-18 months after prior healing.
23 of the patients were retired on behalf of their age and 7 patients were retired for other cause than their age. 24 patients (44,4%) were capable of working. The time of sick leave of the patients before the treatment was in average 2,3 months. During the treatment the period of sick leave was 1,6 months. Daily sickness benefit was applied for a period of average 2,5 months before the treatment, and during the treatment for 5,6 months. There were no severely handicapped nor was there need for vocational retraining.