Wound healing : collagen dressings vs standard wound care

Abstract

Overview: The prevalence of wounds has been increasing over the past 10 years (Guest et al.,2020). With close to 8.3 billion GBP being spent on wounds management annually in the UK alone (Guest et al.,2020), research is needed to ensure that the wounds are cared for in a way that promotes optimal healing and recovery. Research question: Does the use of collagen dressings on wounds decrease healing time? PICO elements: (Population) patients with any type of wound, (Intervention) the use of collagen dressings, (Comparison) standard wound care (Outcome) Faster rate of healing Method: Firstly, HyDi and PubMed Central were identified as appropriate databases. Next, the keywords and their synonyms were identified. Boolean operators, truncations and wildcards were applied in combination with the keywords. During the early stages of the search 4 main limiters were applied: results had to be written in English, full text, peer reviewed and written in the last 5 years. The results of this search were screened and subjected to an inclusion and exclusion criteria. In order to qualify as appropriate, literature had to be either a systematic review or a randomised control trial, human participants, featuring the use of a collagen dressing compared to a control group receiving standard wound care, any other interventions were not considered. The selected articles were appraised using the CASP framework. Results: All five of the selected studies showed that there is a significant difference between the use of Collagen dressing vs Standard wound care. Conclusion: This dissertation provided sufficient information to prove that collagen dressings have a positive effect on the rate of healing in wounds. Implications and recommendations: Recommendations for practice include increasing the availability of collagen dressings. Recommendations for education include the introduction of compulsory education sessions on the use of collogen dressings and the addition of their use in the University syllabus. It is also recommended that management organise events that encourage the use of collagen dressings. Finally, it is recommended that local research be done to understand the effects on the local population and for complete wound healing to be included in future studies.