Clinical evaluation of TIELLE* Plus dressing in the management of exuding chronic wounds.

This clinical evaluation, which was carried out between May 2000 and January 2001, measured the efficacy and safety of TIELLE* Plus dressing, a novel hydropolymer dressing with super-absorbent properties. In total 2121 patients with leg ulcers (59.1%), pressure ulcers (20.7%), diabetic foot ulcers (10.9%) or other chronic wounds (9.4%) were included in the study. These were recruited by 624 physicians in a German post-marketing study. All wounds had been present for at least 4 weeks prior to treatment with TIELLE* Plus dressings and many had been treated with other dressings previously. Within the observation period of 12 weeks, 43% of the wounds healed and 50.4% were considered as 'improved'. With this combined total of about 95% the subjects clearly benefited from a change in therapy from conventional regimes (in Germany) such as ointments and gauze, but also from modern, moist wound healing dressings such as hydrocolloids. The frequency of side-effects was low at 4.8%. Over 90% of the patients rated the TIELLE* Plus dressing therapy as 'much better' or 'better' tolerated than the previous treatment regime. For the large majority of the patients the quality of life also improved. On the basis of the positive experiences with respect to effectiveness, safety and handling, 96.8% (604) of the participating doctors wanted to adopt TIELLE* Plus dressings in their therapy plan. TIELLE* Plus dressings can be considered as an effective, safe and simple-to-handle wound dressing for therapy of chronic wounds in daily practice. The shortening of healing time and the less frequent change of dressing also make this therapy regime attractive on cost grounds.