Treatment for Venous Leg Ulcers

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the best treatment and management of venous leg ulcers in order to provide benefit in the form of optimal healing time to an increasing number of patients with this type of wound. The writer, after developing a focused question to critically review evidence derived from research regarding the management and treatment of venous leg ulcers, explores the cost implications associated with the reviewed treatments. The paper includes tables and graphs.

Outline:
Introduction
Focussed Question
Aim and Rationale
Search Strategy
Randomised Controlled Trials
Limitations of RCT
Strength of RCT
General Observation Of Published Material
Abstract
Literature Review
Methodology
Sample Groups
Results/Findings
Discussion, Limitation And Implications To Practice
Conclusion
References
Appendix 1
Sources of evidence for patient-centred, evidence-based practice.
Appendix 2
Hierarchy Of Evidence: Ranking Of Research Evidence Evaluating Health Care Interventions.
Appendix 3
The Randomised Controlled Trials Analysed To Determine; "Do Venous Leg Ulcers Heal Faster When Treated With Four Layer Bandages Or When Treated With Short Stretch Bandages?"
Study 1
Study 2
Study 3
Study 4
Study 5

From the Paper:

"To acquire propositional knowledge an electronic search of specialist databases was made; Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Cochrane, National Electronic Library for Health and PubMed, this further extended to Blackwell Synergy, Swetswise and Science Direct. The search terms; wound healing, venous leg ulcer, compression therapy, short stretch, four layer, bandages and dressings were used and only quantitative evidence was collected as the studies required were on information regarding healing rates. To narrow the search further and to gain recent evidence the timeframe was limited to within the last ten years and limited to primary literature; a superior source of knowledge direct from the author which has not been misinterpreted before re-presentation in another publication (Cluett and Bluff 2006). Further to this a hand search was made in the library to acquire books and journal articles which supported or discredited opinions."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bell J (2005) Doing Your Research Project: A Guide for First-Time Researchers in Education, Health and Social Science, 4th Edition, Buckingham: Open University Press.
• Bland J and Altman D (1998) Survival probabilities (the KaplanMeier method), BMJ Vol 317, p1572.
• Blecken S.R, Villavicencio J.L and Kao T.C, (2005) Comparison of elastic versus nonelastic compression of bilateral venous ulcers: A randomized trial. Journal of Vascular Surgery 42: pp1150-1155.
• Burns N, Grove S, (2003) Understanding Nursing Research, Third Edition, Pennsylvania: Saunders.
• Cluett E.R and Bluff R (2006) Principles and practice of research in midwifery, 2nd Ed. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.

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