Statement of Problem: Patients in our long term care facilities often arrive with or develop wounds that are chronic in the healing process. This increases the cost of care and may delay discharge from the facility. Past management of these unresponsive wounds had consisted of traditional wet to dry dressings, gels and alginates which progress for a few weeks but no closure was achieved.

Methodology: The 5 case studies selected were non-healing for 3-6 months. The wounds were all free of necrotic tissue. They were gently cleansed with a non-ionic wound cleanser** or normal saline, a native collagen dressing* was applied at varying intervals (from 2-4 days) and covered with a secondary dressing.   

Rationale: It is thought that wounds that are chronic are stalled in an extended inflammatory phase. It is hypothesized that native collagen dressings* may “jump start” the healing process by providing a matrix for the fibroblasts and controlling the matrix metalloproteases (MMP's) and Elastase disabling their production.

 Patient Outcomes: Within one week of application, in all cases, there was obvious stimulation of granulation tissue and epithelial regeneration to the wound bed. Closure occurred within 3-4 weeks for all wounds.

Conclusions: Despite their chronic nature all wounds were resolved with the addition of native collagen* to “jump start” their wounds. The staff found the product easy to apply either by itself or in conjunction with other product. This study needs to be replicated with a larger population.

Product notation: *Puracol Plus **Skintegrity Wound Cleanser both by Medline Industries, Inc. Mundelein, Il.