Management and outcomes among patients with hard-to-heal ulcers in Sweden: a national mapping of data from medical records, focusing on diagnoses, ulcer healing, ulcer treatment time, pain and prescription of analgesics and antibiotics.

Objective: To investigate whether patients with hard-to-heal ulcers in Sweden were treated according to an aetiological diagnosis and to explore ulcer healing, treatment time, ulcer-related pain and the prescription of analgesics and antibiotics.

Design: A national mapping of data from the patients' medical records, between April 2021 and March 2023.

Setting: Data from medical records for patients with hard-to-heal ulcers from a randomised clustered sample of two units per level of care and region.

Antibiotic prescription using a digital decision support system: a register-based study of patients with hard-to-heal ulcers in Sweden.

Objectives: To investigate differences in antibiotic prescription for patients with hard-to-heal ulcers assessed using a digital decision support system (DDSS) compared with those assessed without using a DDSS. A further aim was to examine predictors for antibiotic prescription.

Design: Register-based study.

Pain and analgesics in patients with hard-to-heal ulcers: using telemedicine or standard consultations.

Objective: To compare consultations carried out via video with those performed in person for patients with painful, hard-to-heal ulcers, with a focus on ulcer pain and pain treatment. A further aim was to investigate predictors for pain and pain treatment.

Method: This was a register-based, quasi-experimental study based on data from the Swedish Registry of Ulcer Treatment (RUT).

Clinical evaluation with long-term follow-up of patients with pressure ulcers in one Swedish county.

Objective: To conduct a screening, skin examination and risk assessment of patients with pressure ulcers (PUs) in one Swedish county (inpatient, primary and community care) with follow-up after six months to investigate ulcer healing, frequency of amputation and mortality rate linked to preventive measures.

Method: The methodology recommended by the European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel was used. Screening, risk assessment and skin examination were performed during March 2017.

Pain and analgaesics in patients with hard-to-heal ulcers: using telemedicine or standard consultations.

Objective: To compare consultations carried out via video with those performed in person for patients with painful, hard-to-heal ulcers, with a focus on ulcer pain and pain treatment. A further aim was to investigate predictors for pain and pain treatment.

Method: This was a register-based, quasi-experimental study based on data from the Swedish Registry of Ulcer Treatment (RUT).

Comparing video consultation with inperson assessment for Swedish patients with hard-to-heal ulcers: registry-based studies of healing time and of waiting time.

Objectives: To investigate differences in ulcer healing time and waiting time between video consultation and inperson assessment for patients with hard-to-heal ulcers.

Setting: Patients treated at Blekinge Wound Healing Centre, a primary care centre covering the whole of Blekinge county (150 000 inhabitants), were compared with patients registered and treated according to the Registry of Ulcer Treatment, a Swedish national web-based quality registry.

Participants: In the study for analysing ulcer healing time, the study group consisted of 100 patients diagnosed through video consultation between October 2014 and September 2016.

Cost consequences due to reduced ulcer healing times - analyses based on the Swedish Registry of Ulcer Treatment.

Resource use and costs for topical treatment of hard-to-heal ulcers based on data from the Swedish Registry of Ulcer Treatment (RUT) were analysed in patients recorded in RUT as having healed between 2009 and 2012, in order to estimate potential cost savings from reductions in frequency of dressing changes and healing times. RUT is used to capture areas of improvement in ulcer care and to enable structured wound management by registering patients with hard-to-heal leg, foot and pressure ulcers. Patients included in the registry are treated in primary care, community care, private care, and inpatient hospital care.

A pilot study investigating lactic acid bacterial symbionts from the honeybee in inhibiting human chronic wound pathogens.

Treatment and management of chronic wounds is a large burden on the health sector and causes substantial suffering for the patients. We believe that 13 lactic acid bacteria (LAB) symbionts isolated from the honey crop of the honeybee are important players in the antimicrobial action of honey, by producing antimicrobial substances and can be used in combination with heather honey as an effective treatment in wound management. A total of 22 patients with chronic ulcers were included; culture-dependent and molecular-based (MALDI-MS and 16S rRNA gene sequencing) techniques were used to identify bacteria from chronic wounds.

Ulcer pain in patients with venous leg ulcers related to antibiotic treatment and compression therapy.

The aim of this study was to compare venous leg ulcer patients with and without ulcer pain to see whether ulcer pain affected the use of antibiotic treatment and compression therapy throughout healing. A total of 431 patients with venous leg ulcers were included during the study period. Every patient was registered in a national quality registry for patients with hard-to-heal leg, foot, and pressure ulcers.

Ulcer healing time and antibiotic treatment before and after the introduction of the Registry of Ulcer Treatment: an improvement project in a national quality registry in Sweden.

Objectives: To investigate changes in ulcer healing time and antibiotic treatment in Sweden following the introduction of the Registry of Ulcer Treatment (RUT), a national quality registry, in 2009.

Design: A statistical analysis of RUT data concerning the healing time and antibiotic treatment for patients with hard-to-heal ulcers in Sweden between 2009 and 2012.

Setting: RUT is a national web-based quality registry used to capture areas of improvement in ulcer care and to structure wound management by registering patients with hard-to-heal leg, foot and pressure ulcers.

Bacterial cultures, rapid strep test, and antibiotic treatment in infected hard-to-heal ulcers in primary care.

Objective: In-depth studies on antibiotic treatment for patients with hard-to-heal ulcers in primary care are lacking. The present study was undertaken to update the bacteriological spectrum for this patient group and to investigate antibiotic treatment. A further aim was to investigate the potential of a rapid strep test to find group A streptococci (GAS) causing ulcer infection.

Pinch grafting of chronic leg ulcers in primary care: fourteen years' experience.

Pinch grafting for treatment of chronic leg ulcers has been evaluated mainly in hospitalized and immobilized patients. This study describes the results of 199 pinch graft operations of 126 chronic leg and foot ulcers in 85 patients in primary care between 1987 and 2001. The aetiology of the ulcers was venous insufficiency in 43% and multi-factorial in 25% (77% with venous insufficiency as the main determinant).