﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿Objective analysis of heterologous collagen efficacy in hard-to-heal venous leg ulcers.
﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿Introduction. Collagen plays a major role in tissue repair and is a valid option for the treatment of chronic and acute wounds. Collagen speeds fibroblast deposition inside the extracellular matrix and stimulates angiogenesis, granulation tissue formation, and remodeling. Evaluation of the efficacy of wound treatment can be made by noninvasive, objective instrumental assessment.


METHODS
Forty-six patients with venous leg ulcers were enrolled into the study. The ulcers showed no clinical signs of healing over the course of 6 weeks despite standard treatment. Patients in group A were treated with a biological dressing made of heterologous collagen (Condress®, Abiogen Pharma, Italy) and with a standard treatment in group B. The duration of the treatment was 4 weeks. Chronic wounds were monitored by means of noninvasive assessment using a laser scanning system capable of performing 3D evaluation and color defragmentation.


RESULTS
The median increase in granulation tissue after 4 weeks of therapy was 65% in group A compared to 7% in group B (P < 0.001). A median reduction of 50% in relative ulcer area was observed in group A after 4 weeks of treatment, compared with 32% in group B (P < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
This study objectively demonstrated that a heterologous collagen biological dressing induced granulation tissue in hard-to-heal venous leg ulcers better than standard treatment. The scanning system used to monitor lesions was not only fast, but was easy to use, and had good intra- and inter-observer reproducibility.
MariaStefania
M
Bertone
Valentina
V
Dini
Paolo
P
Romanelli
Franco
F
Rizzello
Wound Healing Research Unit, Department of Dermatology, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy; Email: m.romanelli@med.unipi.it.
Marco
M
Romanelli