Chronic venous leg ulcers: The future of cell-based therapies

摘要

Chronic wounds of legs and feet-including ulcers-are of great socioeconomic importance since they are common12 and burdensome to patients.3 Because of the scarcity of good epidemiological studies, few and rough estimates of the prevalence and incidence of leg ulcers are available. Prevalence varies between 0-1% and 2% in high-income countries.4 Most (80-90%) leg ulcers are caused by vascular disease. Venous leg ulcers are the most common type, accounting for more than 60% of all leg ulcers in the community; the average duration of chronic venous leg ulcers is longer than 2 years.