A randomised prospective study of split skin graft donor site dressings: AWBAT-D™ vs. Duoderm®

ObjectiveTo assess patient comfort and wound-healing efficacy of a new, purpose-designed biosynthetic material (AWBAT-D™) in the healing of split-skin graft donor sites in comparison with our standard dressing, Duoderm®.Materials and methodsWe conducted a prospective randomised controlled trial of donor site dressings, comparing AWBAT-D™ with our standard dressing, Duoderm®. Patients were randomly allocated to have their donor site dressed with one of these materials. Outcome measures included pain scores at rest and during dressing changes, time to re-epithelialisation, time to discharge, scarring and infection. Results were assessed for significance using the Mann–Whitney U-test (non-parametric data) and the Chi-Square test (parametric data).ResultsFourteen patients were recruited with 8 donor sites in each group. The mean pain scores at rest and during dressing changes were not found to be significantly different between the two groups (P = 0.99 and P = 0.90 respectively). The median time to re-epithelialisation was shorter in the Duoderm® group at 11 days compared to 17 days in the AWBAT-D™ group (P = 0.007). The median time to discharge was not significantly different (P = 0.38). No infection or scarring has been observed.ConclusionsBased on these early results, AWBAT-D™ appears to have slower donor site healing and does not provide significant improvements in postoperative pain or discharge time compared to Duoderm®. There is no evidence at this stage that our standard donor site dressing should be changed.