APPLICATION OF HYALURONIC ACID IN THE HEALING OF NON-EXPERIMENTAL OPEN WOUNDS: A PILOT STUDY ON 12 WOUNDS IN 10 CLIENT-OWNED DOGS

Aim - Veterinarians have frequently to deal with wounds to the skin, subcutis and underlying muscle. The aim was to explore the application of Hyaluronic Acid (HA) -containing dressing on open skin wounds in dogs. The progress of healing was assessed by wound area reduction and two scoring scales applied in human medicine. Materials and Methods - Ten client-owned dogs with 12 cutaneous open wounds healed by second intention were included. All wounds were treated using available in commerce HA-containing wound dressing from admission to complete re-epithelialization. At every clinical examination, wound area and scale scoring assessments were performed. Results - After debridement an increased wound size was obtained while an improvement was determined by both grading systems. The median numbers of return to clinic for bandage change was 5 times. The median time to complete wound healing was 34.5 days. The mean wound area at day 7,14,21 and 28 were respectively 90.4%, 47.7%, 22.4% and 14.8% of the original size (for linear measurement) and 95.5%, 54.4%, 23.10% and 14.8% of the original size (for software measurement). Regarding wound healing assessment tools, the agreement between two operators was considered high for both scales. Conclusions - HA-containing dressing may be a possible wound treatment for cutaneous open wounds in dogs. The assessment of wound quality using scale scoring system could be useful especially in the earlier healing period and to direct clinical decision-making process.