Nonhealing Wounds—A Therapeutic Dilemma

Abstract

Chronic wounds of the lower extremity are a therapeutic dilemma. In India, chronic wounds are caused by factors other than impaired circulation and diabetes, which account for most of this clinical problem in Western societies. A study of 2 topical agents, placental extract and phenytoin powder, is presented in this paper. One hundred fifty patients were randomly assigned to these treatments or to saline dressings (control). It was observed that patients receiving active topical treatments responded better than those in the control group. The importance of this finding should be viewed with the perspective that these topical treatments are inexpensive and easily available in India. The study also piloted measurements of angiogenic responses in 1 group, and the findings encourage further exploration with the technique and topical agent.