Decoding Clinical Factors Associated with Fibrosis in Patients with Chronic Wounds: Insight into Cross-Sectional Research

Abstract

Chronic wounds pose a major healthcare burden due to poor healing, high recurrence, and fibrosis that impairs functional recovery. This study aimed to identify clinical factors associated with fibrosis in patients with chronic wounds. A cross-sectional study was done in 200 patients with chronic wounds in a tertiary care healthcare facility. Medical records were used to obtain demographic and clinical data such as age, gender, diabetes mellitus, smoking history, duration of the wound, wound location and clinical infection. A clinical assessment to determine fibrosis status was obtained from patient records. Summary statistics were used to summarize study variables, and the association of clinical factors with fibrosis was tested using the Chi-square test. A p-value of <0.05 was deemed to be statistically significant. 82 (41.0%) patients had fibrosis identified. Most of the participants were male (58.0%) and in the age group 41–60 (44.5%). The number of patients with diabetes mellitus was 42.5%, and 31.0% had a smoking history. Significant associations were observed between fibrosis and diabetes mellitus (56.5% of diabetics vs. 29.6% of non-diabetics had fibrosis, p<0.001), smoking history (54.8% of smokers vs. 34.8% of non-smokers, p=0.008), prolonged wound duration of ≥12 weeks (50.0% vs. 25.7%, p<0.001), and clinical infection (53.2% vs. 33.3%, p=0.004). The greatest frequencies of fibrotic outcomes were seen in patients with chronically draining wounds and diabetes. Patients with the longest wound duration and diabetes had the highest frequencies of fibrotic outcomes. Diabetes, smoking, prolonged wound duration, and infection were linked to fibrosis in chronic wounds, underscoring the importance of early management of modifiable risk factors to improve outcomes.