Effects and prevention of frostbite in wound healing

Observations on wounds sustained at subfreezing temperatures in husky dogs and in man suggested that exposed wet tissues readily become frozen. Frostbite of wounds caused tissue necrosis, wound sepsis and delayed healing, but immediate wound suture protected against this sequence. To explore the effect of wound closure on healing frostbitten tissue, healing of paired dorsal wounds was studied in 20 rats. In each animal one wound was sutured and the other was left open. In 10 animals both wounds were frozen with Dry Ice. All sutured wounds healed primarily. Most of the control open wounds had healed at 15 days, but in the frozen wounds healing was delayed and infection ensued. It is suggested that at temperatures much below freezing the immediate treatment of a wound should include prevention of frostbite by wound closure.