%0 Journal Article
%T Advances in Wound Healing: A Review of Current Wound Healing Products
%A Patrick S. Murphy
%A Gregory R. D. Evans
%J Plastic Surgery International
%D 2012
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2012/190436
%X Successful wound care involves optimizing patient local and systemic conditions in conjunction with an ideal wound healing environment. Many different products have been developed to influence this wound environment to provide a pathogen-free, protected, and moist area for healing to occur. Newer products are currently being used to replace or augment various substrates in the wound healing cascade. This review of the current state of the art in wound-healing products looks at the latest applications of silver in microbial prophylaxis and treatment, including issues involving resistance and side effects, the latest uses of negative pressure wound devices, advanced dressings and skin substitutes, biologic wound products including growth factor applications, and hyperbaric oxygen as an adjunct in wound healing. With the abundance of available products, the goal is to find the most appropriate modality or combination of modalities to optimize healing. 1. Introduction The field of wound care seemingly contains as many different treatment options and modalities as the number of practitioners caring for wounds. While many clinicians rely on and obtain good results with older ¡°tried and true¡± treatments, there continues to be a constant flow of new products and technologies to add to the wound care armamentarium. Some of these products are updated and improved variations of previous treatments, while others are the result of entirely new fields of study. As with any new product, oftentimes the race to introduction into clinical use precedes adequate controlled study, and the efficacy is then defined by clinical experience. This can lead to unanswered questions regarding appropriate use and indications. This paper will discuss several new technologies in burn and wound care. Silver dressings are time honored in wound care, but new forms of delivery aim to increase the efficacy while minimizing side effects. We will also review some of the latest literature on emerging bacterial resistance to these products. Negative pressure wound devices are relatively new in wound care treatment, and their indications are continually expanding to encompass aspects of wound management that previously had very few options. Advanced wound dressing products can help alter the wound environment to optimize healing conditions. With the advent of biosynthetics and tissue engineering, skin substitutes are being created that not only provide novel effective temporary coverage of wounds, but are also changing the paradigm of wound management. By supporting the wound with growth factors
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/psi/2012/190436/