Leg ulcers: a practical approach to the leg ulcer patient.

Wound care has become a complicated science and specialty field of its own; however, all patients are initially seen by the primary care provider, and it is here that the greatest impact on wound healing and limb salvage can be made. Clinicians frequently treat chronic leg ulcers with a variety of products at various costs to the patients and third party payors based on experience not scientific literature, making the interpretation of outcomes difficult. With the problem of leg ulcers being so common, this paper sets out to review the basics of wound healing common to all wounds and to describe the current concepts of management of the three most common leg ulcers seen in a typical outpatient wound clinic setting: venous stasis ulcers, ischemic ulcers, and diabetic foot ulcers.