The use of an antioxidant dressing on hard-to-heal wounds: a multicentre, prospective case series.

Abstract

Oxidative stress can contribute to impaired wound healing and chronic wounds. Our objective was to test the results of a new antioxidant dressing that could help stop the oxidative stress of cells in the wound bed. A multicentre, prospective case study series was conducted in three Spanish hospitals. The RESVECH 2.0 index was used for healing assessment. Data from each patient was collected by the attending clinical researchers. Data analysis was performed using the statistical concept intention-to-treat (ITT). Descriptive results were presented as frequency and percentages for qualitative variables and mean, standard deviation (SD), range and median for quantitative variables. For analytical-inferential analyses, incidence of healing was calculated for chronic and acute wounds. Relative risk (RR) was used to establish the differences of healing between both types of wounds. Healing was represented by Kaplan-Meier survival curves, and these were compared using the log-rank test. A total of 31 patients with hard-to-heal wounds were recruited. During the 8-week follow-up period, nine wounds (29%) completely healed, of which seven (77.8%) were acute and two (22.2%) chronic. The remaining wounds (22) showed a significant improvement after treatment with the antioxidant dressing. RESVECH 2.0 scores decreased an average of 10.16 points over the 8-week period. The antioxidant dressing could represent an alternative in the dressing landscape for many types of acute and chronic wounds.