The most common cause of a leg ulcer is a faulty vein(s) that allows blood to leak or travel the wrong way in your lower extremity. A useful analogy to how of these leg ulcers form is to think of your vein as a leaking pipe and your skin is dry wall. Now imagine the leaking pipe is causing the dry wall to get wet and eventually rot. The damaged dry wall will crumble and maybe even develop an open hole. This open hole is the venous ulcer.
While patching the dry wall may make your wall look okay, with time the wall will get wet again and you will be left with another hole! So before patching the wall, it’s really important to fix the leaking pipe. Similarly, if you want your leg ulcer to heal, you need to have the underlying “pipe” or vein, treated.
Excerpts from a testimonial of one of our patients, Marlene, who suffered from a non-healing leg ulcer sums up the experience of many people:
My personal experience with Miller Vein was finally my journey to healing. I had a venous leg ulcer. (Prior to Miller Vein) I probably had close to 40 visits altogether. The (prior) wound care clinic treated the ulcer with topicals, debriding and wraps… My lucky day (was when my) doctor handed me a Miller Vein card. My husband and I contacted them immediately. I had two office procedures. The wound proceeded to heal…
Notice that prior to definitive treatment, Marlene visited her wound care clinic up to 40 times. We hear stories like this all of the time. Instead of fixing the pipe, they had their dry wall worked on. But does science agree with this concept? I would say YES
In a trial conducted at 20 centers in the United Kingdom, 450 patients with venous leg ulcers were randomly assigned to either undergo early endovenous ablation of superficial venous reflux (closing down an unhealthy vein) or not. Both groups received compression treatment as part of their care. The results? Early endovenous ablation of superficial venous reflux resulted in faster healing of venous leg ulcers and more time free from ulcers.
The take home message is that veins are the most common cause of leg ulcers and when this is the case, early treatment will result in faster/longer lasting healing.
Ref: A Randomized Trial of Early Endovenous Ablation in Venous Ulceration
The NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL of MEDICINE
Manjit S. Gohel, M.D. et al. published on April 24, 2018, at NEJM.org.