Vein Fitness System vs Compressive Therapy for Venous Ulcers: a Bayesian Adaptive Trial

Pró Circulação®

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Varicose Ulcer

Treatments: Procedure: Compressive therapy and wound care; Procedure: Vein Fitness

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03127904

Procirculacao1

Details and patient eligibility

About

The objective of this Bayesian Adaptive trial is to compare a control group versus a comprehensive ulcer healing protocol. The latter involves a combination of compressive therapy, miokinetic drainage and muscle strengthening for the entire lower extremity pump among patients with lower extremity venous ulcers. The investigators hypothesized that the combined therapy will have a higher closure rate as well as lower time to closure.

Full description

This is a Bayesian adaptive, randomized, controlled, parallel, two-armed Bayesian adaptive trial. Patients diagnosed with varicose ulcers through Doppler ultrasonography will be recruited at the Pro Circulation Clinic of Angiology and Vascular Surgery, Brazil. The active group will be the Vein Fitness system, a multimodal intervention comprising exercise, lymphatic drainage, and compressive therapy, while the control group will be standard compressive therapy and regular wound care. The researchers will measure closure of the wounds and the closure rate as the primary outcomes. The study was designed in accordance with the CONSORT statement.

Enrollment: 120 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Venous ulcers due to chronic venous disease assessed by color duplex scan (CDS) examination in standing position. Reflux will be assessed using CDS over a longitudinal vein through the manual compression of the calf in a distant position from the examined area. Reflux will be considered pathological if: >0.5 seconds (s) in the superficial venous system, or > 1.0 s in the deep system, or > 0.35 s in a perforator vein.

Exclusion criteria

• Investigators will exclude patients with ulcers from any other cause, including arterial insufficiency, with ankle-brachial pressure index (ABPI) < 0.8. Also will be excluded patients who use immunosuppressive and chemotherapy drugs, who have allergies to compression materials, and wheelchair users (due to the impossibility of performing the exercises).

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

---

120 participants in 2 patient groups

Vein Fitness

Experimental group

Description:

Lymphomiokinetic exercises will be performed during a 1 hour period, with the patients in a supine position, legs elevated and properly positioned on a carpet; the knees will be mildly flexed to a comfortable point. The patients will put feet on the pedals of ankle extension/flexion device. The frequency will be around 15 to 20 cycles/minute, while the amplitude will be individually adjusted according to the range of movement of each patient. During the exercises, study personnel will manually drain the lower members. Compressive therapy will be applied as described in the control group arm. Care of the wound will be delivered as described in the control group arm.

Treatment:

Procedure: Vein Fitness

Procedure: Compressive therapy and wound care

Control group

Active Comparator group

Description:

Compressive therapy will be applied to both groups by properly trained personnel. Each layer of the compressive boot will have a 50% overlap, from the base to of the fingers to 3 cm bellow the popliteal fossa. The interface pressure used will be of at least 50mmHg in supine position. Wound care will be delivered to every individual in both groups, 1 or 2 times each week by a nurse certified in wound management, following the principles of maintenance of a moisturized surface between the wound and its cover. The nurse will also carry out mechanical wound debriding and biofilm removal.

Treatment:

Procedure: Compressive therapy and wound care