Wound Healing Studies.

Studies directed toward improving wound healing and resistance to wound infection of severely injured soldiers have been carried out aimed at establishing improved prophylactic and therapeutic measures. The studies are based on our view that some of the complex series of events which underlie the reparative process and resistance to wound infection are affected adversely by injury and that these may be modified by nutritional, chemical, and hormonal means, singly and in combination in ways to improve the rate and quality of wound healing, increase resistance to infection and thereby shorten convalescence. Emphasis has been placed on modification of the inflammatory reaction, reparative vessel formation, fibroblastic proliferation, collagen synthesis, collagen cross-linking and collagen resorption. Also, studies have been conducted with a new hemostatic scalpel these were undertaken because there are a number of surgical operative procedures where the attendant blood loss is a serious threat to the patients early excision of extensive deep burns is a notable example of this.