Health-related quality of life and chronic venous leg ulceration: part 1.

Leg ulceration is a debilitating condition characterized by long periods of ulceration and a high incidence of recurrence. The quality of life of sufferers is compromised by many issues including pain and social isolation. Day-to-day care focuses predominantly on the provision of wound care, often with limited attention to the wide-ranging effects that the ulceration poses to the life of the sufferer. Part 1 of this two-part series provides a review of qualitative studies that explore the health-related quality of life of patients with chronic venous leg ulceration. Part 2 will be published in the June 2010 Wound Care Alliance supplement.