Background: For optimal wound-healing process, antimicrobial ability and proper moisture balance appear to play vital roles in design of wound dressings. Ideal wound dressing should promote moist wound environment that supports the body’s healing process. Pain-free removal, proper exudates absorption, suitable moisture and infection control serve as the benchmarks for ideal wound dressing. Biocellulose derived from Acetobacter xylinum has been found to provide decent moisture control and exudate absorption. By combining with impregnated silver nanoparticles, the resultant dressings obtain antimicrobial property. This study describes another innovative ribbon form of blue nano-silver biocellulose ribbon dressing (BNBR: BluRibbon^®, Novatec Healthcare, Thailand) with effective wound healing property for deep or cavity wounds where extra care is required.

Objective: The present study aimed at evaluating the clinical efficacy of cavity wounds management using BNBR at 4 weeks.

Material and Method: 24 patients, aged over 18 years, who were presented at an outpatient wound clinic and treatment unit with cavity wounds of various etiologies, were included in this study. Patients were prospectively followed for 4 weeks or until healing completion for analysis of safety and efficacy endpoints. Wound surfaces were used to assess the initial sizes and evaluate the progress of healing. Evolution of wound size was conducted with tracing and standardized digital photographs using Image J image analysis software for determination of the healing rates.

Results: 24 patients (30 wounds) with an average age of 47.6 years old were evaluated. Cavity wounds enrolled has an average area of 2.4 cm² and approximately 1.4 cm in wound depth. BNBR enabled minimization of wound area in 90% (27 wounds) of wound samples, whereas 97% (29 wounds: p<0.001) demonstrated significant reduction in wound depth after an average of 20.7 days of treatment using BNBR dressing. All patients reported their experiences as pain-free both in situ and on removal.

Conclusion: BNBR significantly promotes cavity wound healing process by reducing both wound area and depth. Suitable moisture balance and antimicrobial function in BNBR contributed to fast healing process. The present findings appear encouraging for further randomized controlled trial in larger study groups.

Keywords: Cavity wound, Silver nanoparticles, Biocellulose dressing