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Electromagnetic therapy for treating venous leg ulcers

Background Leg ulceration is a common, chronic, recurring condition. The estimated prevalence of leg ulcers in the UK population is 1.5 to 3 per 1000. Venous ulcers (also called stasis or varicose ulcers) comprise 80% to 85% of all leg ulcers. Electromagnetic therapy (EMT) is sometimes used as a tr...

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Main Authors:	Aziz, Zoriah, Cullum, Nicky
Format:	Article
Published:	Cochrane Collaboration 2015
Subjects:	R Medicine
Online Access:	http://eprints.um.edu.my/1328/ https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD002933.pub6
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spelling	my.um.eprints.13282019-11-12T02:24:32Z http://eprints.um.edu.my/1328/ Electromagnetic therapy for treating venous leg ulcers Aziz, Zoriah Cullum, Nicky R Medicine Background Leg ulceration is a common, chronic, recurring condition. The estimated prevalence of leg ulcers in the UK population is 1.5 to 3 per 1000. Venous ulcers (also called stasis or varicose ulcers) comprise 80% to 85% of all leg ulcers. Electromagnetic therapy (EMT) is sometimes used as a treatment to assist the healing of chronic wounds such as venous leg ulcers. Objectives To assess the effects of EMT on the healing of venous leg ulcers. Search methods For this fourth update, we searched The Cochrane Wounds Group Specialised Register (searched 30 January 2015); The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (The Cochrane Library 2014, Issue 12). Selection criteria Randomised controlled trials comparing EMT with sham‐EMT or other treatments. Data collection and analysis Standard Cochrane Collaboration methods were employed. At least two review authors independently scrutinised search results and obtained full reports of potentially eligible studies for further assessment. We extracted and summarised details of eligible studies using a data extraction sheet, and made attempts to obtain missing data by contacting study authors. A second review author checked data extraction, and we resolved disagreements after discussion between review authors. Main results Three randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of low or unclear risk of bias, involving 94 people, were included in the original review; subsequent updates have identified no new trials. All the trials compared the use of EMT with sham‐EMT. Meta‐analysis of these trials was not possible due to heterogeneity. In the two trials that reported healing rates; one small trial (44 participants) reported that significantly more ulcers healed in the EMT group than the sham‐EMT group however this result was not robust to different assumptions about the outcomes of participants who were lost to follow up. The second trial that reported numbers of ulcers healed found no significant difference in healing. The third trial was also small (31 participants) and reported significantly greater reductions in ulcer size in the EMT group however this result may have been influenced by differences in the prognostic profiles of the treatment groups. Authors' conclusions It is not clear whether electromagnetic therapy influences the rate of healing of venous leg ulcers. Further research would be needed to answer this question. Cochrane Collaboration 2015 Article PeerReviewed Aziz, Zoriah and Cullum, Nicky (2015) Electromagnetic therapy for treating venous leg ulcers. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (7). CD00293. ISSN 1469-493X https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD002933.pub6 doi:10.1002/14651858.CD002933.pub6
institution	Universiti Malaya
building	UM Library
collection	Institutional Repository
continent	Asia
country	Malaysia
content_provider	Universiti Malaya
content_source	UM Research Repository
url_provider	http://eprints.um.edu.my/
topic	R Medicine
spellingShingle	R Medicine Aziz, Zoriah Cullum, Nicky Electromagnetic therapy for treating venous leg ulcers
description	Background Leg ulceration is a common, chronic, recurring condition. The estimated prevalence of leg ulcers in the UK population is 1.5 to 3 per 1000. Venous ulcers (also called stasis or varicose ulcers) comprise 80% to 85% of all leg ulcers. Electromagnetic therapy (EMT) is sometimes used as a treatment to assist the healing of chronic wounds such as venous leg ulcers. Objectives To assess the effects of EMT on the healing of venous leg ulcers. Search methods For this fourth update, we searched The Cochrane Wounds Group Specialised Register (searched 30 January 2015); The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (The Cochrane Library 2014, Issue 12). Selection criteria Randomised controlled trials comparing EMT with sham‐EMT or other treatments. Data collection and analysis Standard Cochrane Collaboration methods were employed. At least two review authors independently scrutinised search results and obtained full reports of potentially eligible studies for further assessment. We extracted and summarised details of eligible studies using a data extraction sheet, and made attempts to obtain missing data by contacting study authors. A second review author checked data extraction, and we resolved disagreements after discussion between review authors. Main results Three randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of low or unclear risk of bias, involving 94 people, were included in the original review; subsequent updates have identified no new trials. All the trials compared the use of EMT with sham‐EMT. Meta‐analysis of these trials was not possible due to heterogeneity. In the two trials that reported healing rates; one small trial (44 participants) reported that significantly more ulcers healed in the EMT group than the sham‐EMT group however this result was not robust to different assumptions about the outcomes of participants who were lost to follow up. The second trial that reported numbers of ulcers healed found no significant difference in healing. The third trial was also small (31 participants) and reported significantly greater reductions in ulcer size in the EMT group however this result may have been influenced by differences in the prognostic profiles of the treatment groups. Authors' conclusions It is not clear whether electromagnetic therapy influences the rate of healing of venous leg ulcers. Further research would be needed to answer this question.
format	Article
author	Aziz, Zoriah Cullum, Nicky
author_facet	Aziz, Zoriah Cullum, Nicky
author_sort	Aziz, Zoriah
title	Electromagnetic therapy for treating venous leg ulcers
title_short	Electromagnetic therapy for treating venous leg ulcers
title_full	Electromagnetic therapy for treating venous leg ulcers
title_fullStr	Electromagnetic therapy for treating venous leg ulcers
title_full_unstemmed	Electromagnetic therapy for treating venous leg ulcers
title_sort	electromagnetic therapy for treating venous leg ulcers
publisher	Cochrane Collaboration
publishDate	2015
url	http://eprints.um.edu.my/1328/ https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD002933.pub6
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score	13.211869

Electromagnetic therapy for treating venous leg ulcers

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