Validation of venous leg ulcer guidelines in the United States and United Kingdom.

BACKGROUND: Venous leg ulcers account for 85% of all lower-extremity ulcers, with treatment costs of 3 billion dollars and loss of 2 million workdays per year. The purpose of this study was to validate the clinical efficacy and cost effectiveness of multidisciplinary guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of venous leg ulcers.

METHODS: Eighty (40 retrospective, 40 prospective) patients from the United States and United Kingdom were enrolled.

RESULTS: United States patients were 6.5 times and United Kingdom 2 times more likely to heal if a guideline was followed (P <0.001). A significant decrease was noted in healing time for both the United States and United Kingdom (P <0.01), and the median cost decreased significantly when the guideline was followed (P <0.01).

CONCLUSIONS: Implementation of a guideline for diagnosis and treatment of venous leg ulcers resulted in improvement in diagnosis, decrease in healing time, and an increase in healing rates resulting in lower costs.