EFFECT OF TOPICAL PHENYTOIN CREAM ON LINEAR INCISIONAL WOUND HEALING IN ALBINO RATS

In this study, the effect of phenytoin cream on linear incisional wound healing was investigated. Thirty male Wistar rats were subjected to a linear 3cm incision made over the skin of the back. The animals were randomly divided into 3 experimental, control, cold cream and treatment groups. Control group did not receive any drug or cold cream. Cold cream group received topical cold cream once a day from the beginning of experiments until the day that wounds were closed. Treatment group were treated topically by 1% phenytoin cream at the same time. For computation of the percentage of wound healing, the area of the wound were measured at the beginning of experiments and the next 2,4,6,8,10,12,14 and 16 days. The percentage of the healing wounds were calculated by Walker formula after measurement of the wound area. Results showed that there weren’t statistically significant differences between treatment and cold cream animals (P>0.05) in most of the days. It is concluded that phenytoin has possibly no significant effect on the rate of wound closing in acute wound model of incision in rat. Therefore further study is required for detection of the role of phenytoin on wound healing and the related parameters in various kinds of experimental wound models.