BACKGROUND: The porcine acellular dermal graft is an alternative for the treatment of skin wounds. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical and inflammatory response elicited by a porcine derived acellular dermal graft with or without an impermeable dressing. METHODS: A matched-pair longitudinal study was conducted by creating two skin wounds along the dorsal midline of 16 rats (4 rats/group) with implantation of a porcine acellular dermal graft with or without an impermeable dressing. At the 7th, 15th, 30th and 60th postoperative days the animals were evaluated and sacrificed. The acellular tissue and surrounding tissues were removed for histological and morphometric analysis. RESULTS: The impermeable dressing persisted on the wounds for up to approximately 15 days. The group without impermeable dressing presented more desiccation, fibrin crust, edema, and inflammatory reaction in the dermis. At the 60th postoperative day, the group without the impermeable dressing still showed ulcerations, epithelium thinning and lack of keratin, whereas in the group with impermeable dressing the skin was already normal. CONCLUSION: The porcine acellular dermal tissue associated with the impermeable dressing presented better clinical and histological results compared to the porcine acellular dermal tissue without the impermeable dressing in extensive wound healing.
Wound healing; Biocompatible materials; Tissue transplantation
