CAN ANTIMICROBIALS BE EFFECTIVE WITHOUT IMPAIRING WOUND-HEALING - THEEVALUATION OF A CADEXOMER IODINE OINTMENT

The use of povidone iodine is not recommended for open wound treatment . It has been shown to be toxic to skin cells in vitro and to have a l imited antimicrobial effect in vivo. The purpose of these studies was to evaluate the efficacy of a cadexomer iodine ointment on wound epith elization and infection. Partial thickness wounds were made on the bac ks of twelve pigs. Six animals were used for the epithelization assess ment, three for the antimicrobial study, and three for the histologic analysis. The wounds were divided into three treatment groups: 1) untr eated control, 2) cadexomer iodine ointment, and 3) ointment base. The results from the epithelization study showed that on day five post wo unding, cadexomer iodine ointment-treated wounds were 48.5% epithelize d as compared to air exposed and vehicle which were both 23% epitheliz ed (p<0.05). The Healing Time 50 and histological comparison of data s howed no differences in epithelization rates. The microbiology study s howed that at the 24, 48, and 72 hour time points, there were signific antly fewer numbers of S. aureus recovered from cadexomer iodine ointm ent-treated wounds as compared to both ointment base and untreated con trol wounds (p<0.03). No differences in bacterial counts were observed with ointment base treated wounds and untreated control wounds. In wo unds inoculated with P. aeruginosa, cadexomer iodine ointment only red uced the bacterial count at 48 hours when compared to air exposed, but not ointment base. The histology study showed wounds treated with the cadexomer iodine had an increase in epithelization and white cell inf iltrate as compared to ointment base. These studies confirm that unlik e conventional povidone iodine, the cadexomer iodine was not only able to accelerate the rate of epidermal migration in partial thickness wo unds, but was also able to reduce the number of pathogens.