The clinical effectiveness of haemoglobin spray as adjunctive therapy in the treatment of chronic wounds

OBJECTIVE: To investigate wound healing after application of adjunctive topical haemoglobin spray in patients with chronic wounds. METHOD: Consecutive patients with a diversity of chronic wounds (defined as <40% reduction in wound size within 4 weeks) were treated with standard wound care plus haemoglobin spray and evaluated over a 26-week period. Results were compared with a retrospective cohort of 50 consecutive patients treated with standard wound care alone. RESULTS: We evaluated 50 patients for a 26-week evaluation period, during which 45/50 patients (90%) treated with haemoglobin spray were completely healed compared with 19/50 retrospective control patients (38%) (p<0.001). Mean time to complete wound healing was 6.6 weeks (range: 3-22) in the haemoglobin spray group compared with 11.4 weeks (range: 3-25) in the control group (p=0.01). Cox proportional hazards analysis model adjusting for baseline wound size and months wound present also yielded significant treatment effects. Exudate, slough and pain levels were all reduced to a greater extent versus control group. CONCLUSION: Haemoglobin spray resulted in a higher number of healed wounds and a faster rate of healing, as well as a positive impact on other wound parameters. These results are in accordance with other published data and supports the adjunctive use of haemoglobin spray in patients with a wide variety of chronic wounds of all sizes and origins.