Patient Compliance in Venous Leg Ulcers - Essay Example

Thus, it is necessary to treat most of the cases as outpatients and as far as possible, ensure that patients are educated and complying. This literature review presents a discussion about patient compliance and venous leg ulcers that not only presents a discussion about various aspects of the disease but also examines the need for patient compliance.I hereby certify that, except where cited in the text, this work is the result of the research carried out by the author of this study. The main content of the study which has been presented contains work that has not previously been reported anywhere.

Venous leg ulcers are a debilitating and painful condition that greatly reduces a patient’s quality of life, especially for elderly patients who are more likely to suffer from such conditions (London, 2000, Pp. 1589). In the United Kingdom, ulcers of the lower limb affect about 1 % of the adult population and about 3.6 % of the adult population above the age of sixty-five at an annual cost to the National Health Service of about £ 400 m. Thus, for a United Kingdom population estimate of about 60 million, about 600,000 cases of leg ulcers are estimated and it is likely that similar figures are available for other countries of the developed world.

An ulcer is a lesion or a sore on the skin which results from a gradual disintegration of the epithelial tissue and has the capacity for extending into the deeper tissue, with accompanying symptoms of pain. For ulcers of the lower limbs, venous disease, arterial disease or neuropathy are responsible for up to 90 % of the ulcers (London, 2000, Pp 1589). Venous hypertension is responsible for about 80 % of chronic leg ulcers and arterial insufficiency accounts for about 10 % of the cases (Dean, 2006, Pp. 480). A combination of the two previously mentioned reasons for leg ulcers is possible, but it can be safely concluded that a majority of venous leg ulcers can be linked to venous.