This Week In Wellness topical collagen powder may be just as effective as sutures for healing skin biopsy wounds according to a study published in the Journal of Drugs in Dermatology by a team of physician researchers at the George Washington University.

In a comparison that included rate of healing, the quality of the wound healing, symptoms and also the early cosmetic outcomes the topical application of collagen powder onto the wounds the collagen powder proved to be just as effective in this small sample size.

Collagen powder has been a popular supplement used in recent times for gut healing when taken orally due to it’s important structural role in the skin, gut lining and other organs however it also plays an important role as a signal molecule in wound healing. This helps to stop bleeding, stimulate the immune system and stimulate new blood vessel formation and importantly does so without causing irritation or increasing the risk of infection.

“During normal wound healing, collagen acts as a scaffold for cellular entry and growth in the wound bed and encourages the deposition of new collagen,” said Adam Friedman, MD, interim chair of the Department of Dermatology at the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences and an author on the study. “While collagen has been used as a wound healing adjuvant, a good comparison to the standard of wound care has been lacking.”

“Given the cost and time to place and remove sutures and the potential reimbursement for collagen, using topical collagen powder for punch biopsy wounds may be easier on the patient, not requiring an additional visit for suture removal and yielding an equivalent or possibly better wound healing outcome,” Friedman said.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/07/190708140044.htm

https://jddonline.com/articles/dermatology/S1545961619P0667X/1/