Effect of Microcurrent Electrical Stimulation on Microcirculation of Chronic Leg Ulcers

Abstract Background: A chronic leg ulcer, also known as a chronic lower limb ulcer, is a chronic wound of the legs that does not show signs of healing after three months of proper treatment and has not healed completely after 12 months of treatment. Aim of Study: This study was conducted to investigate the impact of micro current electrical stimulation on micro-circulation of chronic leg ulcers. Patients and Methods: Thirty patients (17 males and 13 females) who had chronic venous leg ulcers more than 3 months recruited in this study. They aged from forty to fifty years. The participants were selected from Al-Zagazig Uni-versity Hospitals and distributed into two equal groups, From January 2021 to June 2021. The patients were randomized into two groups of equal number (A,B) (15 patients for each group): The study group A received 60 minutes of microcurrent electrical neuromuscular stimulation in addition to standard medical care (medical treatment and regular dressing), three times weekly for four weeks. The control group B received only standard medical care (medical treatment and regular dressing), for four weeks. Evaluation was done two times; pre and post four weeks of treatment using Duplex ultrasound. Results: Obtained result has revealed that: Within group comparison showed a significant increase blood flow post treatment in both groups compared to that pre-treatment (p>0.001). The percentage of improvement in blood flow of study group was 59.32% and that in control group was 18.13% among group comparison there was no substantial difference between groups before-treatment (p>0.05). Comparison be-tween groups after treatment showed a substantial improvement in blood flow of study group compared to that of control group (p=0.03). Conclusion: It could be concluded that Microcurrent electrical neuromuscular stimulation shows significant im-provement in blood flow of chronic leg ulcers.