Stasis Mucinosis: Insights Into Euthyroid Localized Mucinosis.

INTRODUCTION: Stasis mucinosis and obesity-associated lymphedematous mucinosis (OALM) have been described as 2 discrete diagnostic entities. CASE REPORT: A morbidly obese African American man in his late 60s presented to the emergency room with a 3-month history of swelling of both lower extremities and secondary changes suggestive of lymphedema and venous dermatitis. On physical examination, the patient had severe edema with multiple raised areas of verruciform skin changes and varicosities, diffuse induration, erythema, and scaling. He also had an open wound in his left hallux. The skin biopsy found mucinosis. A diagnosis of stasis mucinosis was rendered. He had normal thyroid function test laboratory results. CONCLUSIONS: The authors suggest stasis mucinosis and OALM represent the spectrum of euthyroid mucin depositional disease in varying clinical settings.

Patients' prediction of their wound healing time.

Understanding and managing patients' expectations can help improve their adherence to treatment for chronic wounds; however, little is known concerning about their expectations regarding healing time. Recruited subjects were asked to predict how long their wounds would take to heal and their charts were reviewed to retrieve real time of healing. We recruited 100 subjects from which 77% have healed. Fifty-three subjects (68.8%) had a longer healing time than they predicted (underestimated), and 17 (22.1%) had a shorter healing time than they predicted (overestimated). Subjects with shorter wound duration history tended to predict shorter healing time than subjects with longer wound duration (p < 0.01). However, wound duration did not affect prediction accuracy (p = 0.65). Subjects with chronic wounds seem more often to underestimate their time of healing. Wound duration significantly influenced patients' prediction time, although it did not make their prediction more accurate. Patient education about expectations may be important as patients often expect their wounds to heal faster than they actually do.

A Novel Topical Wound Therapy Delivery System.

INTRODUCTION: Wound care dressings have evolved over time, from bandaging to the development of occlusive dressings to negative pressure wound therapy. A novel therapeutic delivery system dressing has been cleared by the United States Food and Drug Administration. This semi occlusive wound dressing has been developed to provide local, continuous delivery of aqueous topical agents, such as therapeutics (anesthetics, antiseptics, antibiotics, steroids, topical beta-blockers, immune modulatory agents, growth factors, and fibrinolytic agents, among others), at a rate of about ¾ mL per day, thus maintaining a hydrated environment and providing topical treatment. This type of system may be beneficial in situations where systemic therapies cannot be used, wounds are small and few, wounds may need frequent application of medication or moisture, or low and steady delivery of medications is needed. OBJECTIVE: The authors assessed a delivery system dressing with different types of liquid medications for the management of hard-to-heal, chronic lower extremity wounds. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients aged ≥ 18 and ≤ 90 years with stalled chronic wounds > 30 days' duration were selected for the use of a topical delivery system, which consists of a semi occlusive wound dressing and fluid delivery unit that can provide local application of small therapeutic quantities of medication directly to the wound. RESULTS: Several successful cases with the use of this device are presented in which pain relief, enhancement of epithelial migration, inflammation reduction, bacterial control, and wound size reduction were achieved. CONCLUSIONS: This delivery system dressing is an effective and safe treatment option for wounds. Advantages include reduced potential of systemic side effects, flexibility in what can be delivered, constant rate of medication delivery, and convenience.