A porcine model for pathomorphological age assessment of surgically excised skin wounds

A porcine model of second intention wound healing was established and gross and histological changes needed for accurate assessing the age of wounds were determined. Twenty-five pigs were anesthetized before incision of four wounds on each. The wounds were left to heal from 1 h to 35 days when the pigs were euthanized. In 14 pigs, biopsies were sampled from two wounds between days 2 and 18. By histological evaluation the following characteristics were found useful for determining the age of wounds: neutrophil:macrophage ratio, angiogenesis, hyperplasia of fibroblasts, presence of hemosiderophages and granulation tissue. The latter was present from day 4 (n = 8 wounds, 100%), but by gross evaluation it was not recognized until day 5 (n = 4 wounds, 100%). From day 4 to 10, the thickness of granulation tissue increased by 1.2 ± 2.4 mm/day. The thickness of collagen fibers within granulation tissue increased throughout the study period, and complete epithelization was reached from day 18. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s13028-018-0387-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.