Maximizing wound healing with silver-impregnated porcine xenograft.

1. Grossly contaminated or chronically infected wounds require adequate debridement of dead tissue and wound coverage or closure. 2. Porcine xenograft is a temporary wound covering that prevents evaporation and thereby creates an environment for new cells to propagate instead of being sacrificed by desiccation. 3. The addition of silver ions to the porcine xenograft provides a potent antimicrobial agent that is only active at the surface where it is needed, has no systemic effects, and allows epithelialization to proceed in half the time of uncovered or unsilvered methods. 4.Silver-impregnated porcine xenograft provides a temporary wound covering that is antimicrobial, physiologic, and allows even the most massive and chronically contaminated wounds of years duration to be healed by careful, consistent dressing changes without skin grafts or flaps.