Effect of electrical stimulation on chronic leg ulcer size and

Background and Purpose. Electrical current has been recommended for use on chronic pressure ulcers; however, the ability of this modality to improve healing of other types of chronic ulcers is less well established. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of high-voltage pulsed current (HVPC) on healing of chronic leg ulcers. Subjects. Twenty-seven people with 42 chronic leg ulcers participated in the study. Methods. The subjects were separated into subgroups according to primary etiology of the wound (diabetes, arterial insuffi-ciency, venous insufficiency) and then randomly assigned to receive either HVPC (100 microseconds, 150 V, 100 Hz) or a sham treatment for 45 minutes, 3 times weekly, for 4 weeks. Wound surface area and wound appearance were assessed during an initial examination, fol-lowing a 1- to 2-week period during which subjects received only conventional wound therapy, after 4 weeks of sham or HVPC treat-ment, and at 1 month following treatments. Results. The results indicated that HVPC applied to chronic leg ulcers reduced the wound surface area over the 4-week treatment period to approximately one half the initial wound size (mean decrease44.3%, SD8.8%, range2.8%-100%), which was over 2 times greater than that observed in wounds treated with sham units (mean decrease16.0%, SD8.9%, range30.3%-83.7%). Discussion and Conclusion. The results of the study indicate that HVPC administered 3 times a week should be considered to accelerate wound closure of chronic leg ulcers. [Hough