Achieving Timely Wound Care With Collagen

Charles R. Baxter, MD
Charles R. Baxter Wound Center
Dallas, Texas

BioCore Medical Technologies, Inc
1-800-577-4801
e-mail creator@IDR.net
BioCore Medical Technologies, Inc.

"Our center has achieved a greater than 95% timely wound closure rate utilizing collagen in our treatment protocols."

Every year our wound center treats hundreds of wounds of varying etiologies. An understanding of the healing process and the factors that affect healing is instrumental to providing effective wound care.

Science teaches that all wounds must follow the same healing path to wound closure. However, clinicians often find wound care challenging because so many different factors and patient conditions affect the healing process. In addition, identical wounds rarely exist on the same patient for comparison of different regimens.

The two end points for healing are collagen deposition by migrating fibroblasts and epidermal proliferation. Exogenously supplied collagen furnishes an immediate template or scaffold, thus shortening the time to wound closure. Collagen also has the ability to attract scavenger cells, fibroblasts and endothelial cells (neovascularization) that prepare the wound bed for healing. Collagen enhances the deposition of natural, organized native collagen which minimizes scar formation. Other humoral substances secreted by these fibroblasts interact with epithelial cells, producing their proliferation and migration - thus closing the wound.

Our center has used collagen dressings clinically for several years. In our experience, there appears to be a good correlation between research expectations of clinical outcomes and using collagen as a basic, major component for obtaining wound closure. Our center has achieved a greater than 95% timely wound closure rate utilizing collagen in our treatment protocols.