A Comparative Study of Conventional Wound Irrigants and Their Effectiveness in Wound Healing

Abstract

Debridement is essential for wound healing. It accelerates the normal process of wound healing if done properly. Wound irrigation helps to achieve wound hydration, removes deeper debris, and assists in visual examination of the wound. This study aimed to investigate and compare the utility, complication rates, and outcome of chemical wound debridement with different agents commonly used as irrigants viz. sterile water, normal saline (NS), povidone iodine (PI), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), hypochlorite and neutralized superoxidised solution of water (nSOS). In contaminated wounds with co morbid factors nSOS remained the irrigant of choice followed by H2O2 and PI. Hypochlorite gave good results in wounds where repeated debridement was required. However, normal saline and sterile water came up to be poor quality irrigants with high complication rates in dirty or contaminated wounds.