Healing of a porcine burn wound dressed with human and bovine amniotic membranes

The effects of amniotic membranes (AMs), either fresh human and bovine AMs or acellular bovine AMs, on wound healing were compared among the burn wounds of porcine skin. Six pigs were chosen for the study, and we created deep second-degree contact burns on them with a digitally controlled aluminum thermal block. Then we applied the dressings to some of the wounds using fresh human and bovine AMs, acellular bovine AMs, polyurethane foam, or no dressing. We evaluated the pigs for (1) the rate of epithelialization, (2) histological grading, and (3) infections. We found that the AM groups showed better wound-healing effects than did the polyurethane foam and no dressing groups, and these differences were statistically significant. However, the differences between the AM groups were not statistically significant. Wound cultures showed higher infection rates in the control and polyurethane foam groups compared with the other groups. Our study showed that fresh or acellular bovine AMs provided similar efficacy for wound healing as did the fresh human AMs.