Ultrasonography Superior Over Visual Assessment in Evaluation of Wound Healing After Dermabrasion

Dermabrasion as one kind of treatment for partial thickness wounds is controversial. Visual assessment as the main way to evaluate the healing process of burn wounds is also inaccurate. In this study we try to explore whether dermabrasion accelerates healing in wounds of partial thickness and determine a reliable way to evaluate epithelialization.

Eight female Bama minipigs were anesthetized, and eighteen partial thickness wounds (circle, 4.0 cm², symmetrically located at both sides of the spine) were produced on each. Wounds on the left side underwent dermabrasion (group D), and wounds on the right side did not (group N). All wounds were covered with allogenic skin (premade). The healing processes of the wounds were observed through three different ways, which included visual assessment, ultrasonography, and histological observation. The epithelialization rate (ER) for each day was plotted together to form a healing curve, by which theoretical mean healing times could be determined ("healed" was classified as ER = 95%).

Through visual assessment, the healing times of group D and group N were 13.6 and 18.0 d, respectively. Using ultrasonography, wounds of group D and group N healed at 5.0 and 10.4 d, respectively. Through histological observation, full epithelialization was seen at 5.0 d in group D and at 10.2 d in group N. The healing curves based on visual assessment deviated far from those based on ultrasonography and histological observations, the two of which were almost duplicated.

Earlier epithelialization could be seen in wounds of partial thickness burns after dermabrasion. It would be more accurate and reliable to monitor the epithelialization process through ultrasonography than visual assessment.