The incidence and prevalence of chronic wounds from a major plastic surgery service from a metropolitan city in south western Nigeria: A sixteen-year retrospective review.

[INTRODUCTION] Chronic wound presents a burden to the patient due to the effect on their quality of life and cost of care. The exact prevalence is difficult to assess due to insufficient data, different study designs, and deferent study definitions of chronic wounds. There is limited data on the prevalence and the burden of chronic wound in our subregion. This study was therefore carried out to establish the burden of chronic wound in order to document a baseline data for monitoring progress, as well as provide information for advocacy on equitable distribution of resources for wound care.

[METHOD] This was a retrospective review between January 2007 and December 2022. Data was analysed using SPSS.

[RESULT] A total of 866 patients with new chronic wounds were seen at an average of 54 cases per year. An average of 330 old and new chronic wounds are seen yearly. Chronic ulcers are developing at a rate of 1.2/1000 population, and the prevalence of chronic ulcer is 3.3/1000 population. Most patients were males (57.2 %), with a mean age of 41.7years ± 20.6. Post traumatic wound is the leading aetiology. Age correlates positively with aetiology, p=<0.001. Sickle cell and venous wounds are predominantly on the legs, p=<0.001. There is a correlation between increasing age and occurrence of chronic wound in the leg, p=<0.001.

[CONCLUSION] Post traumatic wound is the leading cause of chronic wound in our subregion. There is a need to improve care of acute wounds to reduce the burden of chronic wounds.