Wound Pain and Wound Healing Biomarkers From Wound Exudate: A Scoping Review.
Taichi Goto, Leorey N Saligan
PMID 33201141WHAT IT FOUND
Wound exudate biomarkers like cytokines and MMPs correlate with pain and healing, but the links are too weak to replace pain scales.
Collection methods vary widely, with dressings being most common but requiring 0.5 to 6 hours.
Key findings
01Pro-inflammatory cytokines in wound exudate are associated with acute surgical wound pain, but correlation coefficients were moderate and insufficient for use as objective pain measures.
02MMPs, growth factors, and specific proteins like S100A9 in wound exudate are associated with wound healing status across venous leg ulcers, diabetic foot ulcers, and pressure injuries.
03The dressing method was the most frequently used exudate collection technique (48% of studies), involving occlusive dressings left for 0.5 to 6 hours, which may affect biomarker quality due to time variability.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The review included only 21 articles, limiting the breadth of evidence. Many included studies had low statistical power and did not describe sample size calculations. The effect of wound infection on biomarkers could not be determined as infection status was often not reported. Variability in exudate collection methods (e.g., dressing time 0.5-6 hours) makes comparison between studies difficult. Correlations between biomarkers and pain/healing were generally weak or moderate, not sufficient for clinical decision-making.
Declared interests
The authors disclosed no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not use wound exudate biomarkers to assess patient pain or predict healing in clinical practice. The correlations found were too weak to replace subjective pain scales, and collection methods are not standardized, leading to variable results.