CAN VENOUS ULCER PREVALENCE BE REDUCED?
The conditions and evidence have never been better than they are today provided that the right actions are taken. In Skaraborg we have been able to reduce the point prevalence of venous ulcer from 0.16% to 0.09% within the health care system, representing a reduction of 46% within a 14-year period.6 This is the first, but surely not the last, study that will show that a change of management will result in a detectable reduction in leg ulcer point prevalence. In 2005 we repeated a large population sample study (10 000 people aged 30-89 years) and a preliminary analysis has shown no more ulcer patients in that study, a result that points in the same positive direction. Overall prevalence is likely to be lowered over the long term, but at a slightly slower speed. Why were we able to reach this result? We feel that the creation of organized care pathways has been important in the multidisciplinary cooperation and teamwork around these patients. A very important step has been to point out t