Placental Membrane Provides Improved Healing Efficacy and Lower Cost Versus a Tissue-Engineered Human Skin in the Treatment of Diabetic Foot Ulcerations

Aseptically processed dehydrated human amnion and chorion allograft (dHACA) (AmnioBand) has shown great promise in the treatment of recalcitrant diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) when compared with standard wound care but has not yet been compared to any other tissue forms used in treating DFUs. The hypothesis was to conduct a randomized controlled trial in which dHACA was compared to one of the earliest and most commonly accepted tissue-engineered skin substitutes (TESS) (Apligraf) in the treatment of nonhealing DFUs over a period of 12 weeks to assess the superiority of healing. METHODS: Following a 2-week screening period during which subjects with DFUs were treated with collagen alginate dressing, 60 subjects were randomized at 5 sites to receive either dHACA or TESS applied weekly, with weekly follow-up for up to 12 weeks. RESULTS: The mean time to heal within 6-week time period for the dHACA group was 24 days (95% CI, 18.9-29.2) versus 39 days (95% CI, 36.4-41.9) for the TESS group; the mean time to heal at 12 weeks was 32 days (95% CI, 22.3-41.0) for dHACA-treated wounds versus 63 days (95% CI, 54.1-72.6) for TESS-treated wounds. The proportion of wounds healed at study completion (12 weeks) was 90% (27/30) for the dHACA group versus 40% (12/30) for the TESS group. The mean product cost for the dHACA group was significantly lower than that for the TESS group [dHACA: $2,200 (median: $1,300); TESS: $7,900 (median: $6,500)]. The mean wastage (%) at 12 weeks was also significantly lower for the dHACA group than that for the TESS group (36% vs 95%). CONCLUSIONS: It was concluded that aseptically processed dHACA heals diabetic foot wounds more reliably, statistically significantly faster than and at significantly lower cost than TESS.