Abstract

A clinical study of patients with pre-tibial lacerations at King's College Hospital and Guy's Hospital, London, England, compared a non-adhesive dressing with Synthaderm. Treatment was randomly allocated. At King's College Hospital, deep and superficial lacerations were equally distributed, the median time to healing with Synthaderm was significantly (P less than 0.02) reduced; and the median rate of healing (mm/day) was significantly (P less than 0.01) better. At Guy's Hospital, larger and wider wounds were unequally distributed, with fewer in the control group; in the Synthaderm group, the median rate of healing was increased. In both centres, the clinical impression was that Synthaderm reduced nursing dressing time and a better scar resulted. Synthaderm improved the rate of healing in pre-tibial lacerations.