For ischemic ulcers, the wounds also called arterial ulcers, the instruction is direct: Do not wear compression stockings or wraps unless told to by your provider. These may restrict blood flow.
This is not a ban. It’s a default with one exception. The default is not to use compression. The exception is a provider who has examined the leg telling you to. Those are the only two options. Deciding for yourself, or carrying over advice given for a different leg wound, is neither of them.
Here’s why the default runs this way. Narrowed arteries are the most common cause of these ulcers. This prevents a healthy supply of blood from flowing to the legs, and to treat an ischemic ulcer, blood flow to your legs needs to be restored. The whole problem is that too little blood is reaching the tissue.
Compression is truly the right treatment for a different wound. With a venous ulcer, you will wear a compression stocking or bandages over the dressing, and wear them every day as instructed. Patients, and sometimes families, hear compression described as standard for leg ulcers and apply it generally. It is standard for one kind of leg ulcer, and for the other kind, the advice is not to use it unless told.
If you have been given compression stockings or wraps and you are unsure which wound they were meant for, that is a question for the person who supplied them, and it is a reasonable question to ask.