Abstract / Summary
Background: Diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) are a very common and complicated problem of diabetes, often leading to long-term morbidity and higher health care resource utilization. Some advanced dressings, like calcium alginate, can improve moist wound healing and improve results compared to traditional saline dressings. Aims and Objectives: We investigated the efficacy of calcium alginate when compared with the conventional saline dressing in diabetic foot ulcer patients. Materials and Methods: This was a prospective comparative study of 64 patients with DFUs who were treated with calcium alginate (n=32) or conventional saline gauze (n=32) dressing. The Bates-Jensen Wound Assessment Tool (BWAT) was used to assess wound healing at the start of the study, 2 weeks and 4 weeks. Secondary outcomes were wound size reduction, pain (based on the Visual Analog Scale), infection rate, length of hospital stay, dressing changes, need for debridement, and amputation rates. A P<0.05 was considered significant. Results: The calcium alginate group demonstrated significantly better wound healing, with lower 4-week BWAT scores (23.84 vs. 29.22) and smaller wound sizes at 2 and 4 weeks (all P≤0.001). They experienced less pain, shorter hospital stays (9.12 vs. 11.84 days), fewer dressing changes, and reduced debridement rates (31.3% vs. 56.3%, P=0.048). Conclusion: Calcium alginate dressings enhance DFU healing, reduce patient pain, and decrease health care resource utilization, though larger future studies are needed to confirm these findings.