Painful acute cysts in the natal cleft or lower back, known as pilonidal sinus disease, are a severe burden to many younger patients. Although surgical intervention is the preferred first line treatment, postsurgical wound healing disturbances are frequently reported due to infection or other complications. Different treatment options of pilonidal cysts have been discussed in the literature, however, no standardised guideline for the postsurgical wound treatment is available. After surgery, a common recommended treatment to patients is rinsing the wound with clean water and dressing with a sterile compress. We present a case series of seven patients with wounds healing by secondary intention after surgical intervention of a pilonidal cyst. The average age of the patients was 40 years old. Of the seven patients, three had developed a wound healing disturbance, one wound had started to develop a fibrin coating and three were in a good condition. The applied wound care regimens comprised appropriate mechanical or autolytic debridement, rinsing with an antimicrobial solution, haemoglobin application, and primary and secondary dressings. In all seven cases a complete wound closure was achieved within an average of 76 days with six out of seven wounds achieving wound closure within 23-98 days. Aesthetic appearance was deemed excellent in five out of seven cases excellent and acceptable in one. Treatment of one case with a sustained healing disturbance did result in wound closure but with a poor aesthetic outcome and an extensive cicatrisation of the new tissue. Based on these results we recommend that to avoid healing disturbances of wounds healing by secondary intention after surgical pilonidal cyst intervention, an adequate wound care regime comprising appropriate wound debridement, rinsing, topically applied haemoglobin and adequate wound dressing is recommendable as early as possible after surgery.

UNLABELLED:Chronic wounds are an increasing problem in our ageing population and can arise in many different ways. Over the past decades it has become evident that sufficient oxygen supply is an essential factor of appropriate wound healing. Sustained oxygen deficit has a detrimental impact on wound healing, especially for patients with chronic wounds. This has been proven for wounds associated with peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD) and diabetic foot ulcers (particularly in combination with PAOD). However, this is still under debate for other primary diseases. In the past few years several different new therapeutic approaches for topical oxygen therapies have been developed to support wound healing. These tend to fall into one of four categories: (1) delivery of pure oxygen either under pressurised or (2) ambient condition, (3) chemical release of oxygen via an enzymatic reaction or (4) increase of oxygen by facilitated diffusion using oxygen binding and releasing molecules. In this review article, the available therapeutic topical oxygen-delivering approaches and their impact on wound healing are presented and critically discussed. A summary of clinical data, daily treatment recommendations and practicability is provided. DECLARATION OF INTEREST:J. Dissemond received an honorarium for lectures, advisory boards and/or clinical studies from the following companies: 3M, B. Braun, BSN, Coloplast, Convatec, Draco, Hartmann, KCI, Lohmann&Rauscher, Medoderm, Merz, Sastomed, Systagenix, UCB-Pharma, Urgo. K. Kröger received an honorarium for lectures, advisory boards and/or clinical studies from the following companies: Bayer, Sanofi, GSK, Hartmann, Sastomed, UCB-Pharma, Urgo. M. Storck received an honorarium for lectures for the following companies: KCI, Systagenix, and UCB-Pharma. A. Risse received an honorarium for lectures, advisory boards and/or clinical studies from the following companies: Bracco, Coloplast, Draco, Lilly Deutschland, NovoNordisk, Sastomed, Urgo. P. Engels received an honorarium for lectures, and consulting from the following companies: Sastomed, Oculus.

Improvement of oxygenation is getting increasing attention as an important aspect in the modern wound care. The aim of such complementary wound care approaches is to improve and accelerate wound healing. A solution comprising purified hemoglobin was added to the standard wound care procedure of patients with venous leg ulcers and compared to a second group without addition of the hemoglobin. In each group, 36 patients were included. The duration of treatment was 13 weeks. Primary end point was reduction of wound size or wound closing. In the group treated with the additional hemoglobin solution, an average of 53% of wound size reduction was obtained. No statistically significant reduction was observed in the second group. The addition of aemoglobin solution in the wound care procedure for venous leg ulcers showed a significant improvement of wound healing in comparison to a control group.

Die Sauerstoffversorgung von chronischen hypoxischen Wunden findet als ein wichtiger Aspekt in der Wundtherapie zunehmend Beachtung. Ziel ist es, durch ergänzende Therapieansätze in der direkten Wundbehandlung eine deutliche Verbesserung und Beschleunigung der Abheilung zu erreichen.

A new technological approach for supplying hypoxic chronic wounds with oxygen is a moist wound treatment with aqueous solutions containing tissue compatible oxygen binders. This facilitates diffusion of oxygen, necessary for the healing process, from the surroundings (room air through an open-porous wound padding) into the ulcerous tissue. A product that is still in development is a spray which contains hemoglobin obtained from domestic pigs. Clinical investigations (a clinical trial, treatment observations and single patient uses) are presented, which were performed to create clinical data regarding efficiency and safety of this product. All data have shown that the application of the hemoglobin spray promoted wound healing in all analyzed cases. Data from a clinical study in Mexico and subsequent therapy observations revealed that in 39 out of 42 patients (93%) the treated wounds were healed. 9 patients from a series of therapy observations in Monterrey (Mexico) showed similar observations. All treated wounds were closed. Single patient uses carried out in Witten (Germany; 6 wounds from 8 (75%)) and Prague (Czech Republic; 5 wounds from 5 (100%) were healed) further support these results: The application of hemoglobin spray can promote healing of chronic wounds. Within the framework of the clinical investigation, the treatment observations, and the individual healing experiments the hemoglobin spray was applied more than 2,000 times onto chronic wounds of 82 patients. In all cases, the spray was well tolerated and there were no adverse event that might have been an adverse reaction to the hemoglobin spray.