Treatment of Nonhealing Ulcers with an Allograft/Xenograft Substitute: A Case Series

OBJECTIVE: Wound dressings that use biosynthetic cellulose may be a good alternative to dressings currently used to treat chronic and acute ulcers because their nanostructure is similar to collagen. The objective of this study was to evaluate a wound dressing created with a new material that is composed of a fibrillary network of biosynthetic cellulose. METHODS: A case series of 8 patients in primary healthcare centers in Östergötland county council, Sweden, with chronic and acute lower limb wounds were treated with a wound dressing based on eiratex (S2Medical AB, Linköping, Sweden). The dressing was applied to traumatic (n = 5) and venous ulcers (n = 3). All ulcers were considered healed at the end of the treatment. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: The wounds were examined at regular intervals by a physician to determine healing time, number of dressing changes, and number of visits. MAIN RESULTS: Mean healing time was 43 ± 6 days after the first application of the dressing. The mean number of visits was 5.7 ± 0.6, and the mean number of dressings used per patient was 1.7 ± 0.2. CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate the efficacy of a wound dressing made of eiratex to heal chronic and acute ulcers. The data show that the number of dressings used and dressing changes needed to heal the ulcers are lower than what have been reported in the literature for other dressing materials.