Chronic wounds have long duration and high incidence of complications. A range of factors that can delay the healing process have been described:
- Persistent inflammatory status
- The imbalance between proteases and protease inhibitors in the wound bed
- Bacterial colonization and biofilm
- Reactive oxygen species (ROS) and oxidative stress.
When ROS is not adequately managed the oxidative stress can delay the wound healing. So the reduction of ROS in bed wound enhance the reactivation of the healing process in wounds that are stalled in the inflammatory phase.
The CuiDsalud research group in collaboration with Histocell is developing the REOX study to compare the effect of an antioxidant dressing (Reoxcare) on the healing of chronic wounds against the use of dressings that create a moist environment (as standard clinical practice) in patients with hard-to-heal wounds. This research project began in 2018 and is being carried as a doctoral thesis by Inés María Comino Sanz.
Currently, the project is in the phase of recruiting patients in the different health centres of the Andalusian Health Service (Spain). The publication of the clinical trial protocol is presented here:
Comino-Sanz, I.M., López-Franco, M.D., Castro, B. et al. Antioxidant dressing therapy versus standard wound care in chronic wounds (the REOX study): study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Trials 21, 505 (2020)
