LABORATORY CRITERIA OF WOUND READINESS FOR SKIN GRAFTING

Background. Objective tests to assess the effectiveness of chronic wound bed preparation (WBP) are laboratory studies, whose results will allow establishing the optimal timing of skin grafting (SG). Aim: To assess the diagnostic informative value of a set of laboratory indicators of the wound's condition for determining the effectiveness of chronic WBP and establishing the wound readiness for SG. Material and Methods. The subjects of the study were 210 patients with chronic wounds. The results of their laboratory tests were compared depending on SG outcome: complete wound healing (75.3 % of the patients, n=158) or graft failure (24.7 %, n=52). Results. It was revealed that the use of a set of laboratory criteria of the wound's condition allowed to assess the effectiveness of WBP and correctly determine the timing of SG in 97.8% of cases. The application of the criteria was based on their changes with respect to the cut-off values. For the convenience of interpreting the results, their scoring was introduced with the subsequent calculation of the formula. Conclusion. The informative criteria of the wound readiness for SG are the values of wound cytology, biofilm, functional activity of neutrophils.