What is a Venous Leg Ulcer?

A venous leg ulcer is the ultimate complication of having either varicose veins or a previous deep vein thrombosis in your leg. They can occur in anything up to 1-2% of the population. Venous leg ulcers often occur on the inner aspect of the leg just above the ankle. However, they can occur on the outside. They actually cause significant problems to the patient with respect to pain, they're not very pleasant, they affect their quality of life, and they can obviously smell. There are various treatment options that are available, but it is very important that a patient who presents with a venous leg ulcer is assessed by a vascular specialist, and an assessment is made of the blood flow going to the legs, i.e. through the arteries, with a test called an ankle brachial pressure index test, And an ultrasound scan is performed of the veins to see if there is underlying disease in the veins so that if that is the case, a treatment can be offered. The initial treatment for a patient who presents with a leg ulcer is to get their ankle brachial pressure indices assessed, to get the ulcer cleaned. And if the ankle brachial pressure index suggests that there is no arterial component, i.e. there is enough blood getting to the leg, then the patient should be offered compression bandaging or compression hosiery, and there are many forms that this takes. Once this compression has been applied, the patient should then be sent for an urgent venous duplex so that if they have got incompetent veins, they can be offered a treatment within two weeks.