Recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor hydrogel promotes healing of deep partial thickness burn wounds

To assess the effects of recombinant human granulocyte/macrophage colony-stimulating factor (rhGM-CSF) hydrogel on the healing of deep partial thickness burn wounds. Ninety three wounds of 65 burn patients who suffered from a deep partial thickness burn of <5% TBSA and could not heal over 3 weeks were included in this study. The patients were randomly assigned to use rhGM-CSF hydrogel (GC group, n = 32) or hydrogel without rhGM-CSF (control group, n = 33). rhGM-CSF hydrogel or hydrogel without rhGM-CSF was topically applied to the wounds, the dressing was changed once a day. Wound healing time and percentage, wound discharge, periwound inflammation, the positive wound swabs culture count, and adverse drug reactions were observed and compared between two groups. Healing time was 12.2 ± 5.0 days after the application of rhGM-CSF hydrogel. This was significantly shorter than that of control wounds (15.5 ± 4.7 days). Healing percentage at 14 days in the rhGM-CSF-treated wounds was 97.5 ± 7.7%, which was markedly higher than the control (85.9 ± 6.8%). At 3, 6, 12, 14 day, the GC group was significantly superior to the control group with respect to the score of periwound inflammation, wound purulence and discharge. The positive wound swabs culture count of the GC group on the 7th and 14th day post-treatment was 14 and 4, respectively, which was significantly lower than the control. rhGM-CSF hydrogel promotes the healing process of deep partial thickness burns effectively. No adverse reaction of the drug was observed during the study.