A review of epidermal maturation arrest: a unique entity or another description of persistent granulation tissue?

Objective: To conduct a review of reported cases of epidermal maturation arrest and to compare their clinical and histological descriptions with that of persistent granulation tissue with a focus on diagnostic methods and response to treatment.

Methods: The authors performed a literature search within Pubmed, Embase, Google Scholar, and Web of Science for all reported cases of epidermal maturation arrest under the terms "epidermal maturation arrest," "epidermal arrest," "epidermal maturation," and "re-epithelialization maturation arrest." They reviewed the clinical and histological presentation of hypergranulation tissue as well as the evidence for the most widely used treatments.

Results: There is only one case series and one case report of epidermal maturation arrest, and the former gives the most detailed clinical and histological description including response to treatment. The clinical description, histological findings, and response to treatment of all cases are comparable to that of persistent granulation tissue and there is no histological or cytological data provided to support that epidermal maturation arrest exists as a distinct entity.

Conclusion: Among the cases of epidermal maturation arrest reported in the literature, there is insufficient evidence that keratinocytes acquired a state of arrest in their migration. Rather, the described cases appear to have been complicated by persistent granulation tissue, a well-known aberration in wound healing.