Improved healing with a collagen-alginate dressing in the chemical matricectomy.

A prospective clinical trial was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of a collagen-alginate wound dressing in the postoperative management of chemical matricectomies. The study involved 20 patients and 23 separate procedures. The collagen-alginate-dressing treatment group had an average healing time of 24.4 days, compared with 35.8 days for the control group, which received treatment consisting of soaks and daily dressing changes (P < .05). The authors suggest that using a collagen-alginate wound dressing in the postoperative management of chemical matricectomies will shorten healing time, thus reducing infection rates and increasing patient compliance and satisfaction.