Editor's Note: Windy Cole, DPM discusses why the CORE protocol is essential for venous leg ulcer (VLU) treatment and how to prevent VLU recurrence.

Transcript

Hi, I'm Dr. Windy Cole, I'm the Director of Wound Care Research at Kent State University College of Podiatric Medicine and I'm also the Global Medical Affairs Director for Natrox Wound Care.

Could you discuss how useful the CORE protocol is for VLU management?

I think the core algorithm is key. Again, keeping things simple and keeping things evidence-based, you know, we were having a discussion recently with some colleagues, standard of care unfortunately is really not standard.

And my standard of care versus, you know, someone out in rural America, their standard of care might be completely different. I think we need to work to standardize wound care in general. So, sticking by algorithms, again, that are evidence-based or important, I think the CORE algorithm is very simple, easy to adhere to, be it your first day at wound care clinic or you've been in practice 20 years, I think it's something that's easy for clinicians to really implement into their clinical routine.

When faced with a recurring VLU, what are your first steps?

Well, recurrent VLUs are very, very common.

Again, recidivism in that patient population is about 70%. You know, you always have to do a complete patient assessment and a complete wound assessment and understand what is not being controlled with the patient to cause that re-injury or that re-ulceration from occurring. And again, a lot goes back to educating the patient on the importance of compression. I personally wouldn't want to wear compression garments every single day, especially if I'm living in a very warm and humid environment, right?

But you have to educate the patient on how important that is because unfortunately, if they don't establish a maintenance plan and stick with that maintenance plan, they will have a recurrent wound. So, sitting down, educating the patient, discussing it with the patient, understanding what obstacles is the patient having? Are they having difficulty wearing that compression garment? Maybe there's an alternative compression garment. Meeting the patient where they are is really important.

Author Disclosures: Dr. Windy Cole, DPM, is on the Speaker Bureau for Organogenesis & Medical Affairs for NATROX