Evaluation of effectiveness of a new treatment method for healing infected wounds: an animal model

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of a new treatment method in healing superficial infected wounds compared with surgical debridement with chlorhexidine solution. Method: In this animal model, two wounds were created on the back of 10 male adult rabbits. Wounds treated by Method 1 were debrided using 0.02% chlorhexidine aqueous solution and an antibiotic topical ointment. Wounds treated by Method 2 wounds were treated using a newly developed device which enabled visual monitoring of the wound as it was treated with various pharmacological solutions (including antiseptic, antiseptic oxidant and an osmotically active agent) specifically formulated for each wound healing stage. Wound area size (using digital planimetry) and time taken to clean the wound were recorded, and biopsies were taken, at the beginning of the study and at various timepoints throughout. Result: It was observed that both wound cleaning and wound healing were accelerated by treatment with method 2 compared with method 1 (by 43.8% and 36.7%, respectively). There were also a significantly smaller number of complications in these wounds [p=0.0044] due to the positive ratios of neutrophils and fibroblasts in the wound cavities (from the third to the fourteenth day after wound modelling). Conclusion: Wounds treated with the new device in method 2 had a shorter wound healing time than wounds treated with a traditional method. The automated influx–outflow of solutions removed any fragments of necrotic tissue from the wound surface. Wounds were able to be monitored without the need to remove dressings. The transparent, airtight film, which allowed for wound monitoring without the need to remove dressings, meant that suturing was not required. This resulted in no complications in the wounds treated by this new method.