Silicone gel sheet is elastic, controls evaporative water loss, and conforms to wound surface. This property provide proper pressure on the flap, moist wound environment and effective bacterial barrier, therefore it is effective for wound healing process and scar formation on the incised bed.
The purpose of our study is to evaluate the effect of silicone gel sheet dressing in the process of wound healing and scar formation on skin flap in rat by comparing with histologic findings and thickness of scar of conventional dry gauze dressing control group.
In 36 rats, the skin flaps were elevated on both sides of back and sutured to their original sites. On left side the silicone gel sheet dressing was applied as an experimental group, and on right side, conventional dry gauze dressing was applied as a control group.
We compared the histologic findings between two groups by observing for changes in contact surface of flap with wound bed at 3rd, 7th and 15th postoperative day and measured thickness of scar at 15th postoperative day respectively. The histologic findings include inflammatory cell infiltration, vascular ingrowth, appearance of fibroblast, collagen synthesis.
As a result, the experimental group showed that less inflammatory cell infiltration, more abundant capillary ingrowth and the large amount of fibroblast production and collagen synthesis and less scar formation than the control group.
With the above results, we concluded that silicone gel sheet dressing can promote wound healing processes and help early safe flap `*take´ and it can decrease scar formation in the contact surface of flap on the wound bed.
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