Prevention of scarring – anti-scarring dressing clinical trial

The objective of this project is to develop therapy that achieves early wound closure and minimises the chances of developing scars. A “first-in-man” early phase clinical trial of a decorin impregnated gellan hydrogel dressing will begin patient recruitment in 2022. This important clinical trial will bring us a step closer to making this innovative and affordable wound dressing field ready and deliver hope of reduced scarring to patients with acute burns.

Participants in this trial will be patients admitted to Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham with moderate size of partial thickness burns. Long term this dressing could be used in the field for a range of injuries likely to result in scarring.

Treatment of historic existing scars – scar laser project

The objective of this project is to examine the clinical efficacy of Photo-Thermal “laser” therapy in treating hypertrophic scars and to improve our understanding of its effects on hypertrophic scarring. We will recruit participants with existing scars from injured Armed Forces personnel, veterans and civilians with scars (mainly from serious burn injuries) via the Complex Scar Clinic at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham and the Welsh Scar Centre in Swansea. Recruitment began in 2021.

We will perform an in-depth assessment of patients’ prescriptive, objective scar assessment as well as cellular, molecular (gene expression, metabolomics, proteomics) responses following different scar therapies, with an initial focus on laser therapy. This activity will provide a platform to test other new future innovative interventions that may improve scarring.