A Skin Fixation Method for Decreasing the Influence of Wound Contraction on Wound Healing in a Rat Model

Background The elasticity of the back skin of the rat reduced the tension around woundsduring the wound healing process in that region, and thus activates wound contraction. Theauthors proposed two skin fixation methods using readily available materials to decrease theinfluence of wound contraction on wound healing and designed an experiment to determinetheir effects.Methods The authors made 36 skin wounds on the backs of 18 rats, and they divided theminto three groups. Each group was treated with three different kinds of dressing materials,each with different skin fixing characteristics. Group A was a control group. Group B andgroup C were dressed by the first and the second skin fixation method. We measured the areasof the wounds post-surgically and calculated the wound area reduction rates.Results The two skin fixation methods both reduced the effect of wound contractioncompared to the control group. Each of the two methods had different outcomes in reducingwound contraction.Conclusions The experiment demonstrated significant differences among the wound areasand the wound area reduction rates of the three groups as a result of differences in thedegree of wound contraction. To obtain accurate results from wound healing experiments,appropriate skin fixation methods must be adopted.