Ready-to-Use Micronized Human Acellular Dermal Matrix to Accelerate Wound Healing in Diabetic Foot Ulcers: A Prospective Randomized Pilot Study

ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE To examine and report clinical outcomes of a ready-to-use micronized dermal matrix for diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) and compare it to treatment with conventional negative-pressure wound therapy (NPWT) only. METHODS The researchers randomly allocated 30 DFUs Wagner grade 2 or higher from 30 adult patients into two groups. The control group (n = 15) was treated with conventional NPWT, and the experimental group (n = 15) was treated with micronized dermal matrix and NPWT. The researchers evaluated the following outcomes: granulation tissue formation, proportion of patients with closed or granulated wounds at 42 and 120 days, achievement of complete wound healing in the 6 months of follow-up, and intervals from enrollment to final surgical procedures. RESULTS All 15 wounds treated with the micronized matrix showed healthy granulation tissue without noticeable complications during follow-up. At 42 days, 46.7% of wounds in the experimental group had closed compared with 28.6% in the conventional NPWT group ( P = .007). At 120 days, 86.7% of the experimental group had completely closed wounds, compared with 57.1% in the conventional therapy group ( P = .040). During the 6-month follow-up period, 93.3% of the experimental group achieved complete wound healing compared with 85.7% of the conventional therapy group ( P = .468). CONCLUSIONS The healing outcomes for DFUs in the experimental group were superior when micronized matrix treatment was combined with NPWT.