Specific foot exercises that activate calf muscles have proven to speed healing of venous leg ulcers and diabetic foot ulcers.
Wounds Advisory Board member Laura Bolton, Ph.D., called for the routine use of structured exercise training (SET) in the February issue. SET is used in patients with limited ambulation caused by peripheral arterial disease and aims to improve lower limb circulation and walking capacity.
To add context to a federal decision that covers up to 36 hospital- or outpatient-based SET sessions, Bolton cited two trials intended to measure the method’s efficacy.
The first, conducted in 2016, showed 77% of patients with venous leg ulcers had complete healing with a 12-week progressive program versus 53% among non-exercisers.
In the second study, published in 2018, patients with DFUs who exercised feet on more than 30 days during a 96-day study window experienced earlier significant reduction of the wound area.
“This suggests that the more patients engage in calf muscle exercise, the more and earlier they improve their chronic VLU or DFU healing,” Bolton wrote. This could lead to “discoveries that save limbs and lives of patients,” she added.
From the March 1, 2019 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
