(Philadelphia,
PA) -- The question of whether post-menopausal women
should subscribe to Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT)
is one of the most controversial issues in medicine
today, as scientists debate the benefits and risks associated
with taking estrogen over an extended period.
Now, research at the University of Pennsylvania School
of Medicine has revealed another possible plus for
HRT: Older patients taking estrogen may be significantly
less likely to suffer from two of the most common and
slow-to-heal wounds that afflict the elderly: pressure
ulcers (often described as "bed sores") and
venous leg ulcers.
The finding by David Margolis, MD, PhD, Associate
Professor of Dermatology at Penn, is published this
week in the journal The Lancet.
For the Study, Margolis reviewed the records of 44,195
female patients.
"Our research indicates that patients receiving
HRT are around 35 percent less likely to develop a venous
leg ulcer or pressure ulcer, which we view as early
evidence that HRT may have a place in preventing chronic
wounds," said Margolis, who holds a secondary appointment
in Penn's Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology.
The study was funded by the National Institute of Arthritis,
Muscular, Skeletal and Skin Diseases, which is part
of the National Institutes of Health.
Others who participated in the study are: Warren
Bilker, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biostatistics
and Epidemiology, and Jill Knauss, MA, in the
Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology.
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Penn Medicine is one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, excellence in patient care, and community service. The organization consists of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and Penn’s Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine, founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school.
The Perelman School of Medicine is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $550 million awarded in the 2022 fiscal year. Home to a proud history of “firsts” in medicine, Penn Medicine teams have pioneered discoveries and innovations that have shaped modern medicine, including recent breakthroughs such as CAR T cell therapy for cancer and the mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System’s patient care facilities stretch from the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania to the New Jersey shore. These include the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Chester County Hospital, Lancaster General Health, Penn Medicine Princeton Health, and Pennsylvania Hospital—the nation’s first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional facilities and enterprises include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, Penn Medicine at Home, Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, among others.
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