Chronic Wounds or Hard to Heal Ulcers: Updating Epidemiology, Physiopathology, and Therapies-Part II

Dear Colleagues,

In December 2020, the first volume of the Special Issue “Chronic Wounds or Hard-to-Heal Ulcers: Updating Epidemiology, Physiopathology, and Therapies” was launched (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/jcm/special_issues/hard_to_heal_ulcers), and we received many excellent papers on the prevention and management of chronic wounds. Now, we would like to launch a second volume on this topic.

Currently, there is intense debate about the terminology, etiology, and epidemiology of so-called chronic wounds, and about current strategies for their prevention and management. Researchers usually use terms such as “chronic wound”, “skin ulcer”, and “hard-to-heal wound or ulcer” indistinctly. However, for certain types of wound, the terminology is changing due to new insights into their physiopathology and etiology; this has led to new theoretical models of wound development, for instance, the progression from decubitus or bed sores to pressure ulcers, and then, to pressure injuries. The case is similar for leg or lower-extremity wounds, where different etiologies could be present.

Nevertheless, many people suffer from such lesions, experiencing a direct cost burden, as well as indirect impacts such as decreased quality of life for themselves and their families. On the other hand, the current prevention and treatment strategies are still limited and are often less effective, or there is little evidence to support them.

This highlights the urgent need for new approaches and new, higher-quality research, requiring further understanding of the whole process, from etiology to wound healing.

In this Special Issue of the Journal of Clinical Medicine on chronic or hard-to-heal wounds, we intend to present cutting-edge original research and systematic, integrative, or scoping reviews on the epidemiology, risk factors, and physiopathology of those wounds; additionally, we welcome research on existing strategies and emerging advanced clinical approaches to prevention and treatment management.

Prof. Dr. José Verdú-Soriano
Guest Editor

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