A prospective study on effectiveness of use of papain urea based preparation in dressings compared with regular conventional dressings in diabetic foot ulcers

Background: Diabetic foot ulcer is a very common condition encountered in surgical practise. Wound management pose a good challenge for a treating surgeon due to its physical, mental and social implications. The devitalised necrotic tissue present in ulcer does not favour the wound healing as it increases the chance of infection and delays appearance of granulation tissue. Hence debriding of devitalised tissue plays a key role in wound care. In present study ,we used papain urea based preparation in dressings which is a autolytic agent. This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of use of papain urea based preparations compared with regular conventional dressing in diabetic foot ulcer management.Methods: This was a prospective study conducted in K. R. Hospital, Mysore, Karnataka, India. 60 eligible subjects with diabetic foot ulcers were selected and subjects were randomly allocated into two groups Group A and Group B with 30 subjects in each group. Subjects in Group A underwent dressing with papain urea based preparation and in Group B underwent regular conventional dressing. Results were assessed with respect to percentage decrease in necrotic tissue, incidence of infection, appearance of granulation and hospital stay.Results: Among Group A subjects percentage reduction of necrotic tissue was more, granulation appeared early and the hospital stay was less compared to Group B subjects which were statistically significant. However, there was no significant difference with respect to incidence of infection in both groups.Conclusions: Papain urea based preparation is effective in diabetic foot ulcer care.