Venous ulcers are a significant problem for patients and the health system. Chronic venous insufficiency has many causes such as obesity, pregnancy, family history, and occupation.A patient with an ulcer usually suffers from bleeding, pain, and local or systemic infection. This chronic condition places a severe financial, social, and psychological burden on the patient and his or her family. 

        Wounds such as this must be treated quickly in an attempt to promote faster healing and prompt symptomatic relief.  Among the various materials that have been used to promote wound healing, the nonadhesive Contreet® Ag foam (Coloplast, Humlebaek, Denmark) appears to be one of the most promising.This silver foam has a wide antimicrobial spectrum due to its silver properties and has had good healing results.The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of nonadhesive, silver-releasing foam (Contreet Ag) versus nonadhesive foam (Biatain) in promoting healing of venous ulcers after 9 weeks of continuous treatment.

                Despite recent advances in wound care, venous ulcers continue to be a challenging problem both for patients and the public health. Aside from medical complications that require costly treatment, chronic venous ulcers can also seriously affect quality of life for a patient and their family.This study is one of the first clinical studies to show that high rates of complete ulcer healing and pain resolution can be achieved in a reasonable amount of time (9 weeks) using a simple approach of topical wound care using a nonadhesive, silver-releasing foam.

           Particularly promising results were obtained in the “difficult” subgroup of patients, (ie, those with wide, deep, infected ulcers with a high degree of exudation). Major limitations of the study include the small number of subjects and the difference of utilized materials. More detailed microbiological studies are needed to determine whether the known antibacterial effect of silver was a critical factor in the observed acceleration of healing. Larger clinical trials are necessary to determine optimal treatment protocols (duration, frequency of dressing changes, possible co-administration of other agents, etc.) for each subgroup of patients