Journal of Clinical and Investigative Dermatology

Research Article

Efficacy and Safety of Low-Dose Aspirin for Venous Ulcers: Randomized Clinical Trial

Sanchez-Dipasupil E*, Gulmatico-Flores Z and Lopez-Villafuerte L

Department of Dermatology, Jose R. Reyes Memorial Medical Center, Philippines
*Address for Correspondence: Sanchez-Dipasupil E, Department of Dermatology, Jose R. Reyes Memorial Medical Center, Philippines, Phone: +639178777978; E-mail: edessahmd@gmail.com
Submission: 16 November, 2019 Accepted: 20 December, 2019 Published: 23 December, 2019
Copyright: © 2019 Sanchez-Dipasupil E, et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Background: Venous leg ulcers are chronic relapsing wounds which impair quality of life and has significant health economic burden. Many venous leg ulcers take over 6 months to heal and a quarter will fail to heal completely. Current standard treatments include compression therapy, bandages and Pentoxifylline. Few published trials in United Kingdom and Spain demonstrated that Aspirin may hasten healing of VLUs. Methods: A prospective, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was conducted to provide evidence regarding the efficacy and safety of Aspirin in addition to standard care. Patients aged 18 to 75 with at least one chronic venous leg ulcer were recruited. Both the treatment and placebo groups were instructed to take 2 tablets of 80 mg Aspirin once daily after breakfast for a maximum of 12 weeks or less in case of complete ulcer healing. Eligible patients were stratified according to size (≤ 5 cm2 and > 5 cm2). The primary outcome measure was the proportion of patients with wound closure described as eschar formation over the entire surface. Safety outcomes were assessed in all participants. Results: A total of 34 patients were enrolled in the study. In the aspirin group, 33.33% of patients had complete ulcer closure compared with 0% in the control group (RR 0.6667, 95% CI 0.4661 to 0.9535, P = 0.0264). Mean healed area of ulcer in the aspirin group was 36.19 cm2 compared to 21.39cm2 in the control group. Healing time for ulcers in the aspirin group was at 6 ± 2.19 weeks. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that Aspirin 160mg has a favorable effect and can be given as an adjunct to standard wound care and compression in the management of venous ulcers. Proper selection of patients will prevent adverse effects and improve healing rate and time.