Tickle Joy
Tissue Viability Nurse Consultant, Isle of Wight NHS Foundation Trust.
Br J Nurs. 2023 Feb 23;32(4):S44-S50. doi: 10.12968/bjon.2023.32.4.S44.
It is vital that as tissue viability teams, we are constantly striving to improve service delivery, healing rates and positive patient outcomes. In 2021 the author's team were introduced to a unique bioactive microfibre gelling (BMG) dressing, MaxioCel®, which uses chitosan to maintain a cohesive structure to increase fluid handling, antimicrobial and wound-healing properties.
Following Isle of Wight NHS Foundation Trust guidelines and with patient consent, 11 patients with chronic wounds of various aetiologies and wound durations were enrolled in a multicentre, clinical 4-week evaluation.
Over a 4-week evaluation period, all patients showed a significant improvement in wound healing parameters including average tissue type, condition of periwound skin, patient comfort, exudate levels. The assessments demonstrated a significant decrease in necrotic and sloughy tissue (from >75% at the start of treatment), replaced with healthy granulation and epithelial tissue (>80% by week 4). Significant reduction in pain score was also reported in all patients, with average pain score at the start of the evaluation reducing from 5.8 ± 2.7 to a score of 2.5 ± 1.9 within 3 weeks.
The complicated wounds seen in this study were previously non-healing and MaxioCel, with BMG technology, demonstrated both significant clinical improvement and a positive impact on patient quality of life within just 4 weeks, resulting in its addition to the team's woundcare formulary.
