A-heal® in the management of chronic nonhealing ulcers: A case series

Abstract

Background and Objective: The aim of this study is to assess the efficacy of A-Heal® in the treatment of nonhealing ulcers (NHU). Patients and Methods: This is a case–control study involving 12 patients who applied A-Heal® 10 mg twice a day on an NHU till the complete healing of the ulcer. The control group had the standard treatment. A-Heal® is a 13 amino acid chain, which was initially isolated from the human placenta, is now synthesized, and has shown to be a powerful angiogenesis factor. Before starting the trial, morphologic features of the ulcers were noted including, size, shape, location, and associated diseases. The follow-up period was set at 6 months. Results: The average age of the treated patients was 52.5 ± 5.3 years in the study group and 51.9 ± 4.7 years in the control group. The mean duration of the ulcer was 13.7 ± 5.3 weeks. All the ulcers were located in the lower limbs. In 9 (75%) patients, there was total healing of ulcers in 22 days and three patients showed signs of wound healing with a reduction in wound size and required an additional 1 week for total healing of the ulcer. Regarding the secondary outcomes of preliminary efficacy, total healing and significant reduction of the area were observed in all patients. There were no adverse events recorded. Conclusion: This case series shows that A-Heal® has proved to be safe with a good preliminary efficacy to heal NHUs, according to the protocol and doses used. A larger clinical trial is needed to verify our results.