Case Series/Study

(CS-111) The Treatment of Diverse Dermatological Wounds with a Human Keratin Hydrogel Matrix*

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Introduction: Chronic wounds can arise from a number of sources, and are often exacerbated by comorbid conditions such as diabetes or vascular insufficiencies. Such wounds do not respond to standard-of-care wound treatments, which can lead to significant complications including infection and amputation. To address this, novel biomimetic wound dressings have been developed to protect these wounds and accelerate healing. Human keratin hydrogel matrices (HKHMs) have previously been shown to resolve diabetic foot and venous leg ulcers. The purpose of this case series is to evaluate the performance of HKHM on other dermatological wounds, including decubitous ulcers and traumatic wounds.

Methods: Four male patients over the age of 65 were enrolled in the case series with wounds that had not healed following a month of standard of care treatment. Patient wounds were cleaned, debrided, and dressed with HKHM* at weekly office visits until wound closure. Wound area was calculated as the area of an ellipse with major and minor diameters as the length and width of the wound, measured weekly.

Results: After four weeks, patient wounds treated with HKHM* showed an average reduction in area of 47 ± 14%. At least one patient showed complete wound closure after 8 applications of HKHM. Interestingly, the patient presenting with a chronic post-surgical ulcer healed faster than decubitous ulcers in this case series, being on average 17 ± 5% smaller after the same number of applications when normalized for initial wound size. No adverse events were observed relating to the application of the HKHM* product.

Discussion:

Chronic wounds are a significant burden on both the patient and the healthcare system, resulting in potential life-threatening complications and multiple office visits. The results of this study suggest HKHM* assists in closing various types of non-healing wounds encountered in a dermatological setting. While previous work has demonstrated HKHM* as an effective wound dressing for diabetic foot and venous leg ulcers, the results of this case series suggest HKHM* may also help in the closure of post-surgical wounds. Future work aims to expand this case series to better understand the effect of HKHM* on the healing of various wound types.

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