Experts from Penza State University (PSU) have found a way to halve wound healing time in patients with diabetic foot syndrome using local application of antioxidant therapy based on porcine collagen. The procedure itself is simple and painless for the patient. This was reported to socialbites.ca by the Russian Ministry of Education and Science.
According to the Ministry of Health, one out of every 15 Russians in Russia is diagnosed with diabetes. About 8-10% of patients suffer from diabetic foot syndrome. In such patients, the healing process of wounds taken at home or after surgery is delayed up to 2-3 months. Often there is a recurrence of the purulent-necrotic process.
Penza scientists have proposed a new way to fight the disease – the local application of antioxidant therapy.
To treat this condition, scientists propose using porcine extracellular collagen matrix, which provides mechanical support and transport of chemicals to cells. It is made from the submucosa of the small intestine of the pig. The scientists impregnated the matrix with the antioxidant mexidol.
“The technology of using the matrix of extracellular collagen is well known. But using a matrix filled with antioxidants to treat wounds in diabetic patients is a discovery. Our method will help to deliver the drug directly to the lesion. Drug therapy will be many times more effective, wounds will heal faster, ”said Gazeta.ru One of the developers of the method, Ru” Artem Zakharov, assistant of the “Surgery” department of the PSU, doctor of the purulent surgery department of Clinical Hospital No. 6 named after GA Zakharyin.
The scientists tested it in experimental conditions on laboratory animals. The results showed that the extracellular collagen matrix was well implanted in body tissues. Now, the proposed method has clinical studies on 10 volunteers included in the main group. These are diabetic patients with non-healing wounds for more than 3 months. Extracellular collagen matrix, collagen gel and their combined version were implanted. In the comparison group, doctors included 15 people who received conventional systemic therapy.
According to Zakharov, it can be said that wound healing is now twice as fast in patients in the main group compared to the comparison group.