Assistência aos portadores de úlceras venosas: proposta de protocolo

Venous ulcers (VU), recurrent chronic wounds resulting from Chronic Venous Insufficiency (CVI), affect different age groups and would severely affect ambulation of patients. The lesions require treatment lasting and complex and are responsible for significant morbidity and mortality. Thus, this study aims to identify the important aspects covered in the scientific literature protocol for assisting patients with venous ulcers, identifying the issues to be proposed by the judges of the study (nurses, doctors and physiotherapists) to the protocol of care provided to patients venous ulcers and present the structure of protocol proposed by the judges of the study to assist patients with venous ulcers treated at a referral hospital of Rio Grande do Norte. This is a descriptive study using a quantitative approach, carried out at the dressings, located in the outpatient surgical clinic of the Hospital University Onofre Lopes (HUOL), located in East Sanitary District, Natal-RN. The sample consisted of 39 professionals, 30 nurses, seven doctors and two physical therapists, team members HUOL surgical clinic and other public and private institutions of Rio Grande do Norte and Jequié/Bahia. These professionals were the judges responsible for selecting the guidelines already proposed in the literature on VU protocols. Approved by the Ethics in Research HUOL (Report n.o 081/07), began the first stage of the study which consisted of reviewing the scientific literature about the relevant aspects to be included in a protocol for assisting patients with VU. These aspects were organized into a proposed questionnaire to the judges of the study. Following examination, held on the content validation with application of the Kappa (K), accepting a score higher than 0.80 and the Likert Scale, whereas rates from 4.0 to 5.0. The data collected were organized in Microsoft Excel and exported into Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 15.0. The literature review included national and international scientific articles, thesis, dissertation and institutional protocols. Regarding the characterization of professional nurses predominated (76.1%), between 34 and 45 years (41.0%), female (79.5%), married/consensual union (46.2%), with specialization in VU care (61.5%), working in the hospital network (46.1%), with up to 5 years experience in VU (69.2%) and claiming to feel prepared to care for these injuries (92.3 %). With regard to aspects that had very good agreement (K ≥ 0.81), remained the items found in the literature with some modifications. In the analysis of the proposed evaluation items had very important, ranging from 4.1 (drug treatment) to 4.9 (patient assessment and care of the injury and the injured and perilesional skin). The proposition of the protocol is arranged in eleven items: A) Evaluation of patient and lesion, B) Registration and documentation, C) the wound and perilesional skin, D) an indication of coverage, E) Use of antibiotic and pain treatment, F) Surgical treatment of CVI, G) Drug treatment, H) Improving venous return and prevetion of recurrence, I) Referral of patients, J) Training and K) Reference and counter reference

Qualidade de vida de pessoas com úlcera venosa: associação dos aspectos sociodemográficos, de saúde, assistência e clínicos da lesão

Venous ulcer (VU) is a lower limbs injury resulting from inadequate return of venous blood in feet or legs. Although it is not a deadly disease, it causes chronic wounds, which seriously undermine patients´ quality of life (QOL) and sometimes leads to drastic family, social, economic and psychological changes. In this sense, there are several aspects that may influence the venous ulcers patients´ QOL. The study´s objective aimed on the association of socio-demographic and health, health care and clinical injury on UV patients‟ QOL. Analytical studies, which consider the complexity of factors involved in changes in UV patients‟ QOL has a cross-sectional and quantitative approach. The HUOL Ethics Committee approved this project (n.279/09). The collection of data lasted a period of 3 months in 2010 and it took place at the clinic of Angiology at Hospital Universitário Onofre Lopes (HUOL). The data sample consisted of 60 patients treated by UV angiologists in the HUOL Surgical Clinic. The results were analyzed with SPSS 15.0 by descriptive and inferential statistics. The study was based on UV patients that were predominantly female, average age of 61.4 years, that had low education level and low family income, with occupations requiring long periods of standing or sitting, but mostly retired, unemployed or laid off due to the disease and/or due to chronic diseases associated with the UV. The study took also into consideration patients that used inappropriate products, that were improperly treated by a professional caregiver, that lacked of adequate guidance and compression therapy, that performed no lifting of the lower limbs and regular exercise, that the time of injury were greater than or equal to six months, that were missing specific laboratory tests. The study‟s reference were on recurrent lesions, medium to large lesions area, bed of the lesion (injuries) with fibrin and/or necrosis, with amount of exudate with medium to large, odorless and no signs of infection, with tissue loss between 1st and 2nd degree, without collecting swab or biopsy and with pain. In general, QOL of researched individuals were considered low, the maximum score was 69 points, which the areas that were mostly influenced were the total scores of QOL functional capacity (0.021), emotional (0.000) and social functioning (0.080). Of the 60 individuals, 53.3% had scores between 40 and 69 points in SF-36, and they had the best scores in sociodemographic and health variables (ρ = 0.049). In respect to the assistance and injury characteristics, patients who scored between 40 and 69 points in SF-36 had better scores on these characteristics. By combining the socio-demographic variables, health, and handling characteristics of the injury, we observed a significant difference (ρ = 0.032) when linking them with the QOL total scores. When analyzing separately the domains of the SF-36 scores on the quality of life, we find that the areas that showed statistical significance were functional ability (ρ = 0.035), appearance (ρ = 0.019), emotional (ρ = 0.000), and mental health (ρ = 0.050). Among the socio-demographic characteristics studied, gender and marital status contributed more to the reduction of QOL and among the variables of assistance and the injury, orientation, reference and area of UV contributed the most. By analyzing these five variables all together in accordance with the overall score obtained in the quality of life, we found a significant correlation (ρ = 0.002); with 6.23 times more chances of patients have better QOL in the presence of these five positive factors. By conducting the Mann Whitney U test between all the five demographic variables, health, and clinical care, we found that this combination also proved to be significant (ρ = 0.006). Therefore, patients with these five variables positive tend to have a better QOL. Based on these results, we reject the null hypothesis (H0) and accept the alternative hypothesis (H1) proposed in this study because we noted that the QOL of patients with UV is associated with sociodemographic and health, health care and clinical aspects of the injury