Effective Treatment of Chronic Venous Leg Ulcers Using Acellular Dermal Matrix

Objectives: Venous leg ulcers (VLUs) lasting more than 12 months are slow to heal. One study calculated that chronic VLUs have a 22% chance of healing compared to an 80% chance for acute ulcers less than three months in duration. A recent publication examined use of an acellular dermal matrix (ADM) to treat VLUs with average duration was nearly two years at baseline. The authors reported that VLUs treated with ADM demonstrated a wound size reduction of 59.6% at 24 weeks compared to 8.1% for the ulcers treated with conventional care. This abstract presents interim data for an additional, ongoing study using the same ADM to treat VLUs.

Methods: This interim analysis evaluated the first 17 participants with full-thickness, chronic VLUs treated with D-ADM (Dermacell®) at six sites. Investigators assessed the effect of this treatment on wound closure and change in area over time. All statistical analyses were calculated using Stata (StataCorp, College Station, TX).

Results: The baseline ulcer area was 7.0±4.8 cm². The ulcers were diagnosed and had been treated for an average of 21±13 months prior to study enrollment. Participants treated with D-ADM demonstrated a healing rate of 52.9% (nine out of the 17) over 16 weeks of treatment. Six of the ulcers healed within 10 weeks. The VLUs treated with D-ADM demonstrated an average wound size reduction of 32.0% at 16 weeks. Combined with the previous VLU healing results, the evidence continues to suggest that D-ADM can provide satisfactory healing of chronic VLUs persisting for over 12 months.