New Wound Dressing Type to Increase Healing Rate of Burn Wounds

2.4 million burn injuries are reported annually in the US. Although medical professionals only treat about 650,000 of these injuries, 75,000 patients end up being hospitalized with 20,000 having suffered burns to at least 25% of their body surface. Annually eight to twelve thousand burn patients die while about one million will have to live with significant and often permanent disabilities. One major complication is the difficult wound healing process the patients have to go through. But not only burn victims suffer from large-area difficult to heal wounds. Diabetics also develop infections that can lead to such wounds as well as patients confined to their beds and suffering from bedsores. Typically collagen or polylactic acid dressings are applied to such wounds. But the treatment is lengthy and not necessarily very successful. Now a new type of wound dressing made of silica gel fibers offers a more successful and faster therapy form in the area of wound healing. It may increase the survival rate as well as decrease the deformation rate in large-area wound care patients.

Several types of traditional wound dressings are available for physicians to use in wound care treatment. There are alginates, biosynthetics, collagens, composites, contact layers, foams, gauzes, hydrocolloids, hydrofibers, hydrogels, specialty absorptives, transparent films, wound fillers, dermal skin replacements, and many, many more. Many of these treatments require re-application, which also can involve the painful removal of the old dressing. The bigger the wound, the harder and more prolonged the treatment. Similarly the success rate decreases in bigger and especially large-area wounds.

Scientists have experimented with several new approaches and now German scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research ISC in Würzburg, Germany, have found a successful new wound dressing made of silica gel fibers which is designed to be fully absorbed by the body and therefore will not require removal. The novel dressing is supposed to facilitate wound healing by building a support matrix for newly grown skin cells in the wound. The scientists claim their product is "shape-stable, pH-neutral and 100% bioresorbable."

The dressing is meant to slowly and completely degrade during the wound healing process. This allows the wound to remain sterile, which prevents infection. According to the scientists only the outer bandage requires changing thereby lowering the risk of contamination.

The dressing is sort of a fiber fleece that fits in nicely with the wound and connects to the surrounding healthy cells to supply them with the structure needed for a good supply of growth-supporting nutrients. This adds another benefit as this method limits scarring by providing for a more natural wound closure.

Bayer Innovation GmbH BIG is supporting the development of the new wound dressing and is expected to have it on the market by 2011. Currently, the scientists are working on improving the dressing through the integration of some active substances like antibiotics and painkillers.