How do chronic leg wounds heal?

Wounds heal in many different ways, normally we would expect a wound to heal from the bottom up and when as a patient you have a wound it's very important that you obtain an expert opinion either from a nurse or a doctor to advise you as to what are the best ways for that wound to heal. It's very important that we know the cause of the wound. This could be related to trauma, could be related to a disease process potentially in your legs, a problem with your artery and veins that have led to a wound in the leg. If you are a diabetic, you may have developed ulceration on the leg. So there are many ways in which we can get a wound. So one of the key things in the management of a person with a wound is to actually take a very clear history from you as to what is the underlying problem. Dependent on the problem that we find, then we have to organise a series of investigations. One of the key things with any wound is to ensure that the blood supply to that wound and the venous drainage from that wound is sufficient to allow optimal healing. If we look at one of the classic examples of venous leg ulceration, this is caused by a patient potentially having varicose veins or from having had a deep vein thrombosis and having damaged veins. This causes what is known as venous hypertension and leads to damage to the skin which leads to ulceration. And this is the commonest cause of having a wound in the lower leg.