Ultrasound treatment trial offers hope for leg ulcer sufferers
Posted on 24 March 2006
A team from the University's Department of Health Sciences is working with nurses across the UK to test out a new therapy for chronic leg ulcers.The VenUS III randomised controlled trial, backed by the Department of Health through its Health Technology Assessment Programme, will involve 336 patients and take three years to complete.
Leg ulcers have a significant impact on older people's health and quality of life and, so far, the only clearly effective therapy is compression bandaging or hosiery.
Trial manager Dr Judith Watson said: "The challenge now is to increase the proportion of healed ulcers, and to reduce healing time, particularly in patients with long-standing or large ulcers.
The challenge ... is to increase the proportion of healed ulcers, and to reduce healing time, particularly in patients with long-standing or large ulcers
Dr Judith Watson
"Previous research has indicated a potential benefit in the use of therapeutic ultrasound on chronic wounds. Many leg ulcers fail to heal despite the use of high compression, so VenUS III will examine the effect of ultrasound on people with 'hard-to-heal' ulcers."
Patients will receive either standard care dressings and bandaging weekly or once weekly ultrasound therapy for 12 weeks, alongside standard care dressing and bandaging.
Research centres across England, Northern Ireland and Scotland, including centres in Leeds and the Scarborough and Whitby areas, are already involved. But the research team at York is still looking for clinical collaborators, who should contact Dr Judith Watson on 01904 321306.
Data collected from each patient will be analysed to identify the most clinically and cost-effective treatment, to aid future decisions about the care and treatment of 'hard-to-heal' venous leg ulcers.
Notes to editors:
- Wounds to be treated in the VenUS III trial will be venous ulcers of greater than six month duration and/or greater than 5cm² in size).
- Centres are currently recruiting within Bolton PCT, Leeds North West PCT, North Cumbria Acute Hospital NHS Trust, Scarborough Whitby and Ryedale PCT and Altnagelvin Hospital H&SS Trust areas. There are also centres within NHS Fife, Bradford Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, Southend-on-Sea PCT, Castle Point and Rochford PCT and Nottingham City PCT, who are preparing to participate in the near future.
- The University
of York's Department of Health Sciences is a large
multi-disciplinary department, offering a broad range of taught and
research programmes in the health care field, including nursing. It
aims to develop the role of scientific evidence in health and health
care through high quality research, teaching and other forms of
dissemination.
- The University's Department of Health Sciences is also involved in a trial assessing the effectiveness of maggots to heal leg ulcers. That trial VenUS II is assessing the effectiveness of the larva of a species of the greenbottle fly - Lucilla sericata - in cleaning and healing leg ulcers and is also due to run for three years.