Octylcyanoacrylate for the treatment of partial-thickness burns in swine: A randomized, controlled experiment

Objective: To compare re-epithelialization rates of superficial partial-thi ckness burns treated with octylcyanoacrylate (OCA), silver sulfadiazine (SS D),and dry gauze (controls) in swine. Methods: This was a prospective, long itudinal, blinded, controlled, experimental trial using anesthetized swine. Sixty-three standardized burns were created by applying an aluminum bar pr eheated to 80 degrees C for 20 seconds to the flanks of four young pigs. Th ree equal sets of 21 burns were randomly treated with OCA spray, SSD, or dr y gauze (controls). Full-thickness biopsies were taken after 30 minutes and at seven and 14 days for blinded histopathologic evaluation by two dermato pathologists using hematoxylin and eosin staining. The percent of wound re- epithelialization was measured at days 7 and 14, calculated by dividing the length of the regenerated epidermis by the measured width of the biopsy. A nalysis of variance (ANOVA) and repeated-measures ANOVA controlling for the individual pig were used for comparisons among groups. This study had 80% power to demonstrate a large between-group difference in percent re-epithel ization (alpha = 0.05). Results: There were 63 burns and 126 biopsies. Ten biopsies were excluded for technical reasons. At seven days, there was a si gnificant between-group difference in percent re-epithelialization. Percent re-epithelialization was greatest in the OCA group (65.0%), followed by th e SSD group (37.6%), and lowest in the control group (8.8%). At 14 days, al l wounds demonstrated near complete re-epithelialization and there was no s ignificant difference in the percent of re-epithelialization among the grou ps. There was only one wound infection in the OCA group. Conclusions: Under these study conditions, treatment of partial-thickness burns with OCA spra y resulted in a higher percent of re-epithelialization at seven but not 14 days when compared with both SSD and control, with no significant increase in infection rates. Future studies should evaluate the use of OCA for the t reatment of burns in humans.