Healing Times and Prediction of Wound Healing in Neuropathic Diabetic Foot Ulcers: a Prospective Study

Abstract

Time line of wound healing and prediction of healing times in diabetic foot ulcers is an important issue. Usually, the percentage of wounds healed within a defined period is used for characterization of wound healing.

R = sqrt {A/pi } (R, radius; A, planimetric wound area; π, constant 3.14), and the wound radius reduction was 0.39 mm/week which was previously established.

The initial average wound area was 96.9 ± 13.1 mm² (mean ± SEM), and 3.61 ± 1.6 mm² after ten weeks with an average healing time of 75.9 (95 %-CI 71 - 81) days. Using the equation mentioned above and the calculated weekly wound radius reduction, the predicted healing time in the test group was 86.9 (95 %-CI 73 - 101) days. The predicted and the observed healing times were significantly correlated with each other (r = 0.55, p = 0.0002).

Providing standard care, the time needed for wound healing can reliably be predicted in neuropathic diabetic foot ulcers. This may be a useful tool in daily clinical practice to predict wound healing and recognize ulcers who do not respond adequately to the treatment.

Diabetes - Diabetic foot ulcer - healing time - wound healing - neuropathy

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