Maximizing the safety of glycerol preserved human amniotic membrane as a biological dressing

Introduction Preservation of human amniotic membrane (HAM) in glycerol 85% has been used clinically but the use of glycerol 98% can give the maximum virucidal activity and increases the safety of HAM. Objective To determine the degree of clinical efficacy of HAM preserved in glycerol 98% as a biological dressing in management of donor site of split thickness skin graft (STSG). Patients and methods 40 subjects were enrolled in this randomized, controlled study conducted in Al-Azhar University Hospitals from August 2013 to June 2014. We compared HAM preserved in glycerol 98% to vaseline gauze. Patients were randomly allocated to STSG donor site dressing with one of these materials. Outcome measures included pain scores at postoperative days 2, 6 and 10, time to re-epithelialization, and incidence of infection. Results Both groups were homogenous regarding age, gender, cause of burn and size. The HAM group showed significantly less pain on postoperative days 2 and 6 (4 and 2.7 vs. 5.6 and 4.2 respectively with p value <0.05). Shorter time to re-epithelialization was also found in the HAM group (11.7 vs. 15.4 with p value <0.05). No significant difference was found between both groups in the incidence of infection. Conclusion HAM preserved in glycerol 98% is clinically effective as a biological dressing. The higher glycerol concentration increases the safety of HAM with retaining the clinical effect at the same time.