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Clinical Research
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The use of flowable collagen scaffold in the treatment of deep tunneling foot ulcers Steve Brigido, DPM, Foot and Ankle Center at Coordinated Health Complex or irregularly shaped wounds that demonstrate tunnels or extensions into deep soft tissue can present extremely challenging problems in the management of diabetic foot ulcers. These wounds leave physicians with limited access to the wound, and it is these wounds that will most likely result in amputation because of the large amounts of tissue, muscle, tendon, and bone that can be involved and the increased risk of infection. Currently, most graft matrices are provided in sheet forms which have been proven effective in treating open wounds, but are less effective in treating complex tunneling wounds. A flowable collagen scaffold that was designed to specifically manage these difficult-to-treat tunneling wounds was used in this study. In this 12-week evaluation, 12 patients with deep tunneling wounds were treated using this collagne scaffold. Ten of the twelve patients (83.3%) demonstrated complete healing within the 12-week time period. The average time to complete healing was 8.5 weeks. An average time to depth healing of 7.8 weeks was observed. This study demonstrates the ability of the flowable soft tissue scaffold to generate granulation tissue up to skin level in a short period of time. The flowable scaffold allows surgeons to perform a minimal debridement without extensive surgical exposure. In essence, making a complex wound into a simple wound for more conventional treatment. |
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