Treating chronic open wounds is a fundamental part of plastic surgery. An ever increasing list of commercially available wound healing agents can easily confuse the health care provider as to which ones are literature proven to be efficacious.

A complete review of the literature was undertaken using common internet search sites Google and Medline. In addition, an investigation of a local hospital wound center was employed to find the most commonly stocked and used wound healing agents. The common wound healing agents were divided into the following categories: enzymatic debriders, occlusives, bioengineered substitutes and growth factors.

Our results demonstrated not all of the common wound healing agents listed in this report are literature proven to be efficacious. None of the studies were double-blinded and randomized. However, the literature does indicate enzymatic debriders, occlusives, and some biosynthetics are efficacious. Limited evidence-based data is available for the newer bioengineered skin substitutes and growth factors.

To our knowledge, this is the only literature review examining the efficacy of common wound healing agents to date. It is our hope that this report will guide the plastic surgeon and any general health care provider in choosing the appropriate therapy for a given chronic open wound.