TY - JOUR JF - World-J-Plast-Surg JO - WJPS VL - 10 IS - 2 PY - 2021 Y1 - 2021/2/01 TI - Plasma Zinc Levels in Patients with Chronic Leg Ulcers at University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria TT - N2 - BACKGROUND Chronic leg ulcers are defects in the skin below the level of knee persisting for more than six weeks and shows no tendency to heal after three or more months. Zinc is a necessary component of several DNA & RNA polymerases and transferases essential for cell proliferation. Zinc deficiency is known to retard wound healing by preventing cellular mitosis and disturbance of fibroblast function and collagen synthesis. This study compares zinc levels in patients with chronic leg ulcers with apparently healthy individuals. METHODS Five milliliters of venous blood samples was taken from twelve patients with chronic leg ulcers. Five milliliters of venous blood samples was also taken from a control group, who do not have chronic leg ulcers, but are matched with the cases in age (± 5 yr), sex, socioeconomic status and body mass index (± 3 kg/m2). Plasma zinc levels was determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Principal exposure include the socio-demographic characteristics of patients, duration of symptoms before presentation, signs of ulcer–site, number, size, depth, base, edge, presence of discharge, enlarged lymph nodesand local neurovascular integrity. The outcome variables include plasma levels of biochemical markers measured –Zinc, serum albumin, total protein. RESULTS The plasma zinc levels was significantly lower (P<0.01) in patients with chronic leg ulcer (92.808±16.689 μg/dl) as compared with control subjects (109.413 ± 9.304 μg/dl). There was no statistical differrence in albumin and protein levels in both groups. CONCLUSION Patients with chronic leg ulcers have significantly lower plasma zinc levels than apparently healthy individuals. SP - 40 EP - 45 AU - Ojo, Adedoyin Babatunde AU - Oluwatosin, Odunayo Moronfoluwa AU - Ademola, Samuel Adesina AU - Akinosun, Olubayo Michael AD - Department of Surgery, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria KW - Zinc KW - Chronic leg ulcers KW - Nigeria UR - http://wjps.ir/article-1-782-en.html DO - 10.52547/wjps.10.2.40 ER -