A COMPARISON OF OBSIDIAN AND SURGICAL STEEL SCALPEL WOUND-HEALING IN RATS

There are several anecdotal clinical articles claiming wound healing a nd scar superiority using obsidian (volcanic glass) scalpels. In order to determine if skin incisions made with obsidian were superior to th ose made with standard surgical steel, wound tensile strength, scar wi dth, and histology were assessed in 40 adult male Sprague-Dawley rats. Each rat received two parallel 8-cm dorsal skin incisions, one with a n obsidian scalpel and the other with a surgical steel scalpel (no. 15 blade). Data were analyzed by ANOVA. Tensile strength of the two woun d types was not different at 7, 14, 21, and 42 days. Scar width, howev er, was significantly less in the obsidian wounds at 7, 10, and 14 day s (p < 0.005). At 21 days, scar width was not different in the two gro ups. At 42 days, all wounds were barely detectable, thus precluding sc ar width analysis. A blinded histologic review suggested that obsidian wounds contained fewer inflammatory cells and less granulation tissue at 7 days.