Neutrophil Elastase Inhibitor Increases Flap Survival in Experimental Degloving Injuries

OBJECTIVES: Degloving hand injuries have generally been viewed as among the most difficult of injuries to manage due to the extensive nature of associated damage. The traditional approach to the circumferentially degloved segment of problematic flap viability has been to resuture the flap and to wait and see. However, the waiting period or the specific hemorheological protocol remains uncertain. This study aims to acknowledge if Sivelestat, known to ameliorate ischemia-reperfusion injury, enhances the survival of avulsed flaps in a hind limb degloving model of rats and to compare Sivelestat’s effects to Pentoxifylline. METHODS: In this study, total flap area (cm(2)), area of necrosis in the flap (cm(2)), and the ratio between the necrotic and total areas (percentage) were determined. Angiogenesis among the groups was documented with CD31, anti-PECAM staining. TUNEL assay was performed to allow the visualization of cell nuclei containing fragmented DNA, a typical feature of apoptosis. RESULTS: The findings obtained in this study showed that Sivelestat administered at 10 mg/kg/hour dosage will inhibit the ischemia-reperfusion injury more pertinently than Pentoxifylline, which exerts only hemorheological effects. CONCLUSION: The anti-inflammatory effects of Sivelestat will be beneficial for decreasing the early complications of degloving injury, such as inflammation, sepsis, and edema, better than Pentoxifylline, which exerts only hemorheological effects.