Background: Chronic venous leg ulcers drastically reduce the quality of life of affected patients. There is heightened interest in autologous platelet-rich plasma (PRP) as one of the promising therapies for leg ulcers.
Aim: Our aim was to compare the clinical efficacy of PRP in the management of chronic venous leg ulcers vs conventional treatment.
Patients/methods: In total, 40 patients with chronic venous leg ulcers were included in the study. Twenty patients were treated with autologous PRP weekly for 6 weeks (Group A), and 20 patients were treated with conventional treatment (compression and dressing) for 6 weeks (Group B). Treatment results were calculated by percentage of improvement in area of the ulcer.
Results: Compared to conventional therapy, a highly significant improvement in the ulcer size was observed post-PRP therapy (P-value = .0001). The mean change in the area of the ulcer post-PRP and conventional therapy was 4.92 ± 11.94 cm and 0.13 ± 0.27 cm, respectively, while the mean percentage improvement in the area of the ulcer post-PRP and conventional therapy was 67.6% ± 36.6% and 13.67% ± 28.06%, respectively. Subjective improvement in pain associated with the ulcer was noted by all patients.
Conclusions: Platelet-rich plasma is a safe nonsurgical procedure for treating chronic venous leg ulcers. Additional studies with larger sample size and longer follow-up periods are required to confirm or refute our findings.
Keywords: chronic wound; conventional treatment; platelet-rich plasma; venous ulcer; wound healing.
© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.