Publication:

Comparative study of papaya dressing versus normal saline dressing in healing of ulcers

Background Chronic non-healing wounds pose a remarkable challenge to health professionals and drain our resources. In recent years, prevalence of diabetic foot ulcers is growing at epidemic proportion in India and worldwide. There are various modalities available for wound debridement. In present study, authors have compared two debridement methods, one which we use regularly in their hospital, wet to dry normal saline dressing and enzymatic debridement with papaya.

Methods This was a randomized, comparative interventional study of 100 patients carried out in Kilpauk Medical College Hospital from August 2013 to August 2014 to compare to efficacy of papaya dressing over normal saline dressing in chronic non-healing wounds.

Results The mean reduction in slough/necrotic tissue in at time of inclusion in study and four week after the study was assessed. In saline dressing, mean reduction was 13.156, standard deviation 3.4558. The mean reduction in slough/necrotic tissue in papaya dressing 10.5, standard deviation 0.7071. There was significant difference in percentage reduction in slough/necrotic tissue within the two groups. Similarly, for the cases with active ulcer, the size assessment at the time of inclusion in the study and three week after was again analysed using student t-test and the mean ulcer size in papaya dressing 2.5062 and standard deviation 1.504. Mean ulcer size in normal saline dressing 2.1564 and standard deviation 1.2961.

Conclusions Present study concluded that favourable and significant ulcer healing rate with improvement and reduction in clinical severity suggests that enzymatic debridement with papaya dressing plays an important role in management of chronic non-healing ulcers.