Effectiveness of using an ostomy skin barrier/wafer as a splint to maintain the shapes of circular cutaneous wounds in obese mice

Abstract

We examined whether an ostomy skin barrier/wafer was effective at maintaining the shapes of circular wounds when it was used as a splint. We used non-obese mice and obese mice: weighing approximately 1.4 times the weight of the non-obese mice.

We made 4 mm in diameter circular full-thickness skin wounds on the dorsa of mice. A splint was made from an ostomy skin barrier/wafer. The splint was rectangular in shape and measured 2.5 cm in the cephalocaudal direction and 2 cm in the dorsal and ventral directions. There was a 1.5 cm in diameter hole in the center of the rectangle. The skin barrier was placed on the peri-wound skin so that the hole in the splint was located in the center of the wound, and the wound was covered with hydrocolloid dressing and sealed with tape. We performed wound shape comparisons between the nonobese and obese mice. We also conducted such comparisons between obese and non-obese mice that were treated with hydrocolloid dressing alone; i.e., without a splint.

In the non-obese mice, the shape of the wound seemed to be circular, and it remained similar regardless of whether a splint was used. In the obese mice in which splints were not used, the wounds were oval-shaped. On the other hand, the shape of the wound in the obese mice in which splints were used remained circular.

This study suggests that the use of an ostomy skin barrier/wafer as a splint is useful for decreasing tension, since such splints maintained the shapes of circular wounds in obese mice.