Wound Healing Effect of Calcium Channel Blocker- Verapamil in an Excision Wound Model in Albino Wistar Rat

As calcium was shown to modulate cellular proliferation, maturation of keratinocytes and fibroblasts, we conducted study to observe effect of verapamil on excision wound model. Method Total 12 Albino Wistar male rats were divided in two groups and each group received either verapamil or normal saline after excisional wound. Primary outcome was percentage closure of the wound at 12th postoperative day.Results Verapamil showed significant difference in percentage reduction of wound area comparing with normal saline at day 3, 6, 9 and 12 (p 0.001 .05). The mean percentage inhibition for saline group was 68.25 5.58 and 86.64 1.63 (p 0.019 .05) for verapamil group. There was no statistically significant difference between the verapamil and saline group heart rate between pre-drug and post-drug heart rate.Conclusion Our data demonstrates that verapamil dressing has overall faster healing rate than standard saline dressing. Topical verapamil may be a suitable alternative to saline in the treatment of wound area in the developing country like India.