Venous Ulcers of the Lower Extremities

Interactive Skin Wound Segmentation Based on Feature Augment Networks

Skin wound segmentation in photographs allows non-invasive analysis of wounds that supports dermatological diagnosis and treatment. In this paper, we propose a novel feature augment network (FANet) to achieve automatic segmentation of skin wounds, and design an interactive feature augment network (IFANet) to provide interactive adjustment on the automatic segmentation results. The FANet contains the edge feature augment (EFA) module and the spatial relationship feature augment (SFA) module, which can make full use of the notable edge information and the spatial relationship information be-tween the wound and the skin. The IFANet, with FANet as the backbone, takes the user interactions and the initial result as inputs, and outputs the refined segmentation result. The pro-posed networks were tested on a dataset composed of miscellaneous skin wound images, and a public foot ulcer segmentation challenge dataset. The results indicate that the FANet gives good segmentation results while the IFANet can effectively improve them based on simple marking. Comprehensive comparative experiments show that our proposed networks outperform some other existing automatic or interactive segmentation methods, respectively.

A Rare Case of Recurrent Lower Extremity Ulcer

Venous leg ulcers are a manifestation of lower extremity chronic venous disorder. Venous hypertension caused by abnormal venous blood flow is considered to be the primary mechanism of venous ulcers. The etiology of lower extremity venous ulcer is complicated, and it is difficult to be treated. At present, it has achieved a certain effect for venous leg ulcers through the combination of drugs, pressure therapy, and surgical treatment. Budd-Chiari syndrome is a rare syndrome characterized by portal hypertension and/or inferior vena cava syndrome. Treatment of Budd-Chiari syndrome includes anticoagulation, thrombolysis, angioplasty, stenting, transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt, and liver transplantation. This article reports an elderly female patient with recurrent ulceration of both lower extremities that healed poorly after long-term dressing and skin grafting. During further examination, she was found to have Budd-Chiari syndrome. Through multidisciplinary treatment, which includes removing the inferior vena cava stenosis and implanting the ulcer wound, the ulcer wounds then healed.