The effect of electrical current on healing skin incision. An experimental study.

The effect of electrostimulation on healing of a 6 cm long incision on the dorsum of rats was investigated. Postoperative stimulation was given with direct current (DC) to ten rats, and with alternating current (AC) to ten. Non-stimulated controls were used for each group. The words were biomechanically and biochemically tested three days after the final stimulation. Both DC and AC stimulation caused significant increase of the collagen content around the incision line compared with controls, but the collagen increase did not affect the tensile strength or the energy absorption. Electrostimulation of short duration is concluded to have a minor but significant enhancing effect on the formation of collagen in clean surgical wounds, but no effect on mechanical wound strength in the early postoperative period.