Studies on healing of Debrisan-treated wounds

Debrisan (Pharmacia AB, Sweden) is a highly hydrophilic dextran polymer in the form of dry, spheric beads. When dry Debrisan beads are placed on a wound, the wound secretions are sucked up into and between the beads. No crust is formed on the wound. Bacteria granular substances are removed with the secretions. Treatment with Debrisan was found to be very effective in cleansing discharging wounds. Since Debrisan treatment removes substances from the wound area, e.g. prostaglandins, this might affect the process of repair. The morphology of wounds was studied with the aid of histological and histochemical methods. In 15 patients, donor sites on one thigh, treated with Debrisan, were compared with donor sites on the contralateral thigh, subjected to open treatment. In pigs, comparison was made between Debrisan-treated with Vaseline-gauze-covered dermal burns. In man, the inflammatory reaction was less pronounced in the Debrisan-treated wound and located more superficially then in the wound left open, where perivascular inflammatory cell infiltrates were found even deep in the dermis. In pigs the burns exhibited similar differences. Thus the inflammatory reaction in the Debrisan-treated wounds was less pronounced than in the control wounds. Debrisan beads were never seen below the wound surface. No unfavourable influence of Debrisan treatment was observed on the process of repair.