Efficacy of Type-1 Fish Collagen Membrane v/s Human Amniotic Membrane as a Surgical Dressing Material in Maxillofacial Wounds: A Comparative Study.

Management of maxillofacial wounds holds a major challenge for surgeons due to aesthetic concerns. Type I Fish Collagen Membrane and Human Amniotic Membrane (HAM), biologic materials have attained importance in various clinical fields, especially in wound healing. Though both materials have their own unique properties, there is a need to compare and evaluate the efficacy of Type I Fish Collagen Membrane and HAM as a surgical dressing material for soft tissue defects in Head and Neck region. A study encompassed total of 60 patients with maxillofacial wounds resulted either from trauma or by wide excision or ablation therapy of various benign pathologies in head and neck region. They were randomly divided into two groups, with 30 patients in each group. The groups were evaluated using following parameters like ease of operability, pain relief, wound healing, and safety of the membrane. The results indicated that pain relief and healing were much better in HAM cases and like operability and safety of the membranes were equally good. No complications such as infection, burning sensation, or graft rejection were noted. HAM dressing may be considered as safe, cheap and effective alternative method for treating head and neck wounds.