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Aim:

The present study compares the potency of pain and microbial reduction of a PHMBcontaining hydrobalanced biocellulose based wound dressing* versus local silver standard of care in patients of high wound pain and critically colonized or locally infected wounds.

Methods:

We performed a controlled, randomized, prospective, multicentric comparative study for a period of 28 days. Patients presenting with acute and chronic wounds of different origin were eligible: (i) with an initial pain level of 4 or greater, as defined by the visual analogue score (VAS), and (ii) a wound associated semi-quantitative bacterial load of ++ or higher. Signs of systemic infection and systemic antibiotic therapy were exclusion criteria.

Results:

We report the initial interim results of 21 patients with statistical validation. With regard to sex, age, body weight and heights both treatment arms showed no difference. Both, PHMB-containing hydrobalanced biocellulose based wound dressing* as well as the silver dressings were able to reduce the overall wound pain. Yet, the biocellulose based wound dressing* was significantly more effective in reducing the pain after the dressing change compared to silver. In addition, both treatment arms were reducing the microbial load in wounds with slightly better results in the hydrobalanced biocellulose based wound dressing* arm. Notable, health care workers defined the hydrobalanced biocellulose based wound dressing* as user friendly, appreciating the overall more easier therapy versus silver.

Discussion:

Data shown with significant less pain for the hydrobalanced biocellulose based wound dressing* after dressing changes suggest a more patient-friendly structure. Together with the high user satisfaction and the proven more easy way of using the PHMB-containing hydrobalanced biocellulose based wound dressing*, our study proves that both, patients and health care workers, benefit from its use.