Tag Archive for: chronic wound care

, ,

Common Skin Graft Procedures and How Vetrix Technology Can Help

Veterinary Neurology Vetrix

When a patient has a wound that’s too big to close on its own or a wound that becomes chronic and doesn’t heal by itself, treatment with a skin graft may be beneficial in obtaining wound closure. Skin grafts help quickly and effectively restore function and provide better cosmetic results than other treatment options. Additionally, skin grafts protect from infections and parasites. The Vetrix BioSIS Technology we provide is a regenerative medicine beneficial in remodeling, regrowing, and repairing wounds encountered in the veterinary field.

Two Common Skin Graft Procedures in Veterinary Medicine

When it comes to common household pets, veterinarians are often most likely to perform one of the following types of skin grafts when necessary for wound treatment:

  • Total Skin Graft (or Full-thickness skin graft): This skin graft includes the epidermis and dermis. It involves removing a piece of skin and the fat from the underside of the skin. This grafting procedure requires the donor site to have enough surrounding loose skin so the incision can be closed.
  • Partial Thickness Skin Graft (or Split-thickness skin graft): This skin graft involves shaving a thin layer of skin, 0.2 to 0.4mm, off the donor site. The cutting plane of this graft remains above the hair follicles so that no hair will grow from this skin graft. The donor site will heal independently and doesn’t require closure, but it may be more painful than a total skin graft because the exposed nerve endings will need time to heal. It’s typically used in burn victims with limited normal skin for grafting.

Veterinarians will guide their patients on the best skin graft option for their particular wound.

Treating Skin Grafts With Regenerative Veterinary Medicine

Once it’s been determined that a pet needs a skin graft to heal a wound, consider a regenerative medicine solution as part of your treatment. Unlike synthetic materials or other biological grafts, Vetrix Technology provides a structure for healthy tissue to grow across and incorporate into the extracellular matrix, resulting in wholly remodeled, vital, and fully vascularized tissues. During the healing process, Vetrix BioSIS is replaced with the body’s native tissue, developing into a permanent repair without the long-term presence of a foreign body. After healing is complete, patients are left with healthy, natural tissue.

BioSIS is a great regenerative medicine solution for skin grafts because it facilitates angiogenesis and rapid remodeling, allowing the body’s defense mechanisms to react and respond to any potential infection. It promotes safe and sterile healing of the wound.

Download the BioSIS Informational Brochure to learn more about this technology and how it can aid in healing skin graft patients.

Get the brochure.

/by
,

Dealing with Chronic Wounds: Wound Care 101

Caring for and treating patients with chronic wounds can sometimes be frustrating and discouraging. You so desperately want to give them the best wound care possible and see them live their lives to the fullest, but nothing seems to offer a permanent solution. You may be able to improve your results with the BioSIS method.

Using Porcine Small Intestinal Submucosa (SIS) for Wound Care

Researchers say that using porcine SIS to treat chronic wounds has improved healing time and permanency. Due to its makeup, an acellular, biological extracellular matrix (ECM), porcine small intestinal submucosa draws in the host’s cells to attach and multiply. This aids in quicker, more permanent healing.

Growth compounds like collagen, elastin, glycosaminoglycans, and proteoglycans help with the healing process. And it’s not just one cell that’s attracted to the matrix. Porcine SIS attracts numerous cell types for a healthy, diverse layer formation. Since it takes more than growth factors to aid in the healing process, it’s fortunate that SIS has been found to decrease matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) activity. These endogenous proteolytic enzyme levels usually rise with chronic wounds.

Even better, the mechanical properties of multi-layer SIS are stronger and degrade slower as opposed to single-layer SIS. Pertaining to the repair of different kinds of wound types, these two SIS products provide flexibility when choosing a biologically-active ECM.

1-Layer VS. 3-Layer SIS

When choosing between 1-layer SIS and 3-layer SIS, studies show a thicker matrix may be preferable. One study done in diabetic mice showed the 3-layer SIS didn’t require application as frequently as the 1-layer matrix. Where both SIS layers were applied to full-thickness wounds on the day of wounding and three days later, the thicker matrix showed larger sections of unincorporated layers—meaning there was still significant space in the matrix for cells to mitigate.

This is good to know for patients that may have owners who live farther away and travel a greater distance for appointments or cannot afford frequent applications.

More Reasons to Consider the SIS Method

Besides reducing MMP levels, you may also want to consider the SIS method for wound care because it contains proteins that foster cell attachment and growth factor binding sites, sequester matrix-degrading enzymes, and enhance cellular filtration into damaged tissue. In addition to these positive effects, it also supports new blood vessel growth, which is vital to wound recovery.

Overall, small intestinal submucosa has been found to not only increase healing in wounds but also the rate at which the wounds recover compared to the standard of wound care.
If you’d like to further discuss this method of wound care or have any questions, please contact us. We would be happy to speak with you! And if you’d like to read more on topics like this, visit our blog page.

/by