Background:

Clinically there are two classifications of Diabetes Mellitus (DM), namely type 1 and type 2. Almost 90-95% of cases of DM found are DM type 2. Hyperglycemia in patients with DM can cause atherosclerosis which is thickening of the basalis membrane, and changes in peripheral nerves that lead to occurrence of diabetic ulcers. The method of treating moist diabetic ulcers with hydrocolloid dressing as "moist wound healing" is the method being developed.

Methods:

Pretest and posttest with control group time series design were used in this study involving 40 diabetic ulcer patients selected based on the determined criteria. Furthermore, 20 patients underwent ulcer treatment using hydrocolloid dressing and 20 patients for conventional ulcer treatment. Dressing replacement was carried out every 2 days and the wound area was measured every week on weeks I, II, and III.

Results:

The results of the normality test of data using Saphiro-Wilk showed that the data were normally distributed (α <0.05) so that the General Linear Model test with repeated measurements used and the result of the multivariate tests of differences in wound area between measurement periods I, II, and III differed significantly from p-value = 0.000 (α <0.05). Furthermore, the area of wound based on the therapy given, namely with Hydrocolloid Dressing and Conventional Dressing also showed a significant difference (p value = 0.047).

Conclusion and Recomendation:

There are differences between the two methods of treatment with hydrocolloid dressing and conventional dressing in the wound healing process. Wound care using both hydrocolloid dressing and conventional dressing showed the healing process with indicators of decreased wound area from weeks I, II, and III. The process of reducing wound area linear with the time of treatment which the longer the wound care the better the healing process. Therefore, in deciding to use the wound dressing method on diabetic ulcer, it is necessary to consider cost-effectiveness and further studies on how conventional, relatively inexpensive wound dressing need to be developed.