I have a infected, venous ulcer on the bottom inside leg, just above my ankle. what treatments are there?

Venous stasis ulcer: You should see your local wound care provider to make sure your on the appropriate antibiotics (possible IV abx inpatient). Debridement might be necessary or even an incision and drainage. You should get an xray or ultrasound make sure the bone is not involved. Do not apply compression if their is an active infection.

Treatment is needed: Any time you have any sort of infection you should have treatments. Infections can be treated by antibiotics and surgical care as needed. Infections can become very serious very rapidly. The fist thing that needs to be done is to clear up the infection. There are many new treatments available to heal the ulcer. You should get treatment asap!

Many: Need thorough exam including determining adequacy of blood flow(arterial), and venous duplex to evaluate whether your veins work properly. If they don't, venous ablation with us can help. As far as wound, will need it to be adequately debrided, compression hose, appropriate dressings depending on what it looks like, possibly antibiotics. Best to go to wound center.

Many treatments: If there truly is an infection, it should be addressed with antibiotics. Following this compression of the venous ulcer will allow it to heal. Stubborn or slow to heal wounds may require ablative therapies to refluxing veins or, in some cases, an evaluation for arterial insufficiency (pad). I would suggest being evaluated by a vascular surgeon prior to visiting a wound center.

Culture wound: Watch my video on venous ulcer case study - http://cs.Drbrown.Ws. Get culture done which can determine the antibiotic choice. I use xeroform with silvadene (silver sulfadiazine) rotate this with xtrasorb dressing with bactroban.

Compression: The most important point here is compression. Infection will keep coming back unless you compress the leg, reduce the edema, and allow the ulcer to heal. Obviously abx to rid the infection first.

Compression: Venous ulcers are frequently inflamed rather than infected your wound doctor can test your leg for arterial flow if that is good you need compression.

Infection: You will need to be treated fo the infection after obtaining wound cultures. I have good results in treating patients with hydroferra blue with compression wraps to the extremity.

INfected ?: If it was swabbed to obtain the culture, it is not infected swab cultures only identify wound contamination and cannot be used to identify infection. Doc's treatment recommendations are right on. For venous disease, compression is key with either a 4 layer or two layer compression system as the key. Unna;s boots are no longer used by true wound care specialists.

If infected: You may need antibiotics and or debridement of the wound. The main stay of treatment will include compression as long as there is no concomitant arterial disease. You should be under the care of a doctor.

1st treat infection.: Venous ulcers are the end result of long standing chronic venous insufficiency, venous stasis and venous hypertension. An infected ulcer is treated by appropriate antibiotics, wound cleaning (debriding) and topical wound care. The next step is to identify the source of the venous hypertension which is usually malfunctioning valves in the saphenous system and treat them if present by laser.

See vein specialist: Leg ulcers are often caused by chronic venous insufficiency which is a problem that causes to much pressure to be in the veins near the skin. A venous specialist can diagnose and treat this condition. Our cure rate with venous ulcers is 97%. If it is infected I would recommend seeing a physician ASAP as these infections can progress quickly due to poor circulation.

Ulcer: You need an evaluation venous Doppler sonogram to determine if there is venous reflux and if so early thermal ablation will help heal the ulcer The faster you do this the quicker it will heal