Randomized Clinical Trial of the Innovative Bilayered Wound Dressing Made of Silk and Gelatin: Safety and Efficacy Tests Using a Split-Thickness Skin Graft Model

We developed the novel silk fibroin-based bilayered wound dressing for the treatment of partial thickness wounds. And it showed relevant characteristics and accelerated the healing of full-thickness wounds in a rat model. This study is the clinical evaluation of the bilayered wound dressing to confirm its safety and efficacy for the treatment of split-thickness skin donor sites. The safety test was performed using a patch model and no evidence of marked and severe cutaneous reactions was found. The efficacy test of the bilayered wound dressing was conducted on 23 patients with 30 split-thickness skin graft donor sites to evaluate healing time, pain score, skin barrier function, and systemic reaction in comparison to Bactigras. We found that the healing time of donor site wounds treated with the bilayered wound dressing (11 ± 6 days) was significantly faster than those treated with Bactigras (14 ± 6 days) (p = 10(−6)). The wound sites treated with the bilayered wound dressing showed significantly less pain and more rapid skin functional barrier recovery than those treated with Bactigras (p = 10(−5)). Therefore, these results confirmed the clinical safety and efficacy of the bilayered wound dressing for the treatment of split-thickness skin graft donor sites.