Comparison of the Wound Healing Effect of Cellulose and Gelatin: An In Vivo Study

• Main Authors: Bum Sik Kang, Young Cheon Na, Young Wan Jin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Korean Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons 2012-07-01
• Series: Archives of Plastic Surgery
• Subjects: Cellulose; Gelatin; Hemostatics; Wound healing
• Online Access: http://www.e-aps.org/Synapse/Data/PDFData/2023APS/aps-39-317.pdf

Background Many topical hemostatics are widely applied for bleeding control. They can beclassified into two categories according to their mechanism of action on the clotting cascadein a biologically active or passive manner. Passive hemostatics include cellulose and gelatin.We performed an experimental study to compare the effect of passive hemostatics in woundhealing by applying them to a rectus abdominis muscle defect of white mice.Methods Surgicel is a sterile absorbable knitted fabric prepared by the controlled oxidationof regenerated cellulose. Spongostan is an absorbable hemostatic gelatin sponge. In 30 mice,a 1×1 cm defect was created on the rectus abdominis muscle and the materials were appliedin three ways: control group, cellulose (Surgicel) group, gelatin (Spongostan) group. For thehistologic analysis, biopsies were performed at 3 and 28 days.Results After 3 days, the cellulose group showed limited granulation formation with acuteinflammatory reactions similar to the control group. At the 28th day, moderate amountsof granulation tissue formation was observed with milder inflammatory reactions than thecontrol group. In the gelatin group, after 3 days, gelatin remnants were observed surroundedby severe inflammatory changes. After 28 days, the same quantity of gelatin remnants couldbe still observed.Conclusions This study suggests that cellulose is associated with minimal morbidity in woundhealing, while the use of gelatin shows severe adverse tissue reactions with delayed woundhealing. Consequently, cellulose is better than gelatin when considering wound healing.