? Burn injuries represent the most terrifying and horrific trauma imaginable. This image is conditioned, in part, from the appearance of surviving bum victims that have been horribly scarred and disfigured following the healing of their injuries. Fortunately significant advances have been made that prevent these outcomes. Conventional rescue, first aid and emergency trauma have significantly improved survival of badly burned individuals. Moreover, surgical intervention and tissue repair products have greatly improved the quality of healed tissues. A notable improvement is the use of implantable collagen matrices that serve as tissue scaffolding to support the formation of neodermis. This improvement significantly decreases contraction and provides an optimal bed for split thickness grafts which overall significantly shorten healing times and improve cosmetic appearance. However collagen matrices are uniquely susceptible to colonization with bacteria because they are largely devoid of humoral and cellular defense mechanisms. Microbial colonization invariably necessitates removal of the collagen matrix, antimicrobial therapy, and repeat surgical applications. We have shown in Phase I studies that it is practical to impregnate collagen matrix with antimicrobial silver to render it inherently resistant to colonization. This phase II application proposes to extend those findings to optimize the silver impregnation protocol so as to improve collagen matrix implant materials for use in burn and deep tissue repairs and test their efficacy in an in vivo wound model. The ultimate goal of this project is to produce commercially viable silver impregnated collagen matrix that resists microbial contamination. ? ?
