A comparative study of three sprayed dressings in healing skin wounds.

Three sprayed dressings (Novitas' wound spray, Nobecutan, and Sraycutan) were evaluated as wound covers by using guinea-pigs as experimental animals. There were no statistically significant differences between the closure rates of the wounds covered with the three sprays. All the dressings protected the wounds equally against suppuration, which caused irregular and ugly scars in the non-sprayed control wounds of the same animals. Histologically, the non-treated wounds showed a greater number of leucocytes and oedema than the sprayed ones. This was demonstrable from the 8th to the 16th postoperative hours onwards. There were no histological differences between the variously covered wounds. Histochemically, the most intense enzymatic response to injury was demonstrable in the wounds treated with Novitas' wound spray, followed, in order of decreasing response, by Nobecutan, Spraycutan, and the non-treated wounds. These differences were most marked 4-6 hours after wounding. An intense enzymatic response to injury is considered to be beneficial to the healing process.