Pilot Study on the Effectiveness of Sulphurous Thermal Water in Wound Hygiene: Spa Wound Care

The effectiveness of sulphurous thermal waters in the treatment of complex or difficult wounds has been known since ancient times.

In recent years, the increase in life expectancy, the aging of the population and survival of chronically ill subjects lead to the outbreak of "hard to heal" wounds presenting multi drug resistant germs (MDR). Recent studies have shown that the effectiveness of thermal waters is not only related to the presence of dissolved ions but, as in the case of sulphurous ones, to the presence of hydrogen sulfide, a gas transmitter that diffuses freely through the skin, eliciting local and systemic effects. This molecule, present in sulphurous waters within specific pH and temperature ranges, is able to promote the healing of acute, chronic and infected wounds. H2S also exerts a powerful antibacterial and antifungal effect by transforming into pentationic acid (H2S5O6). In addition, the specific microbiome of each thermal source has the ability to interact with the skin microbiome and prevails over wound biofilm stimulating skin eubiosis. By virtue of these considerations, investigators perform an interventional pilot trial conducted to evaluate the effects of raw sulphurous thermal water, microbiologically pure, in the wound hygiene of acute and chronic wounds, regardless of their aetiology and bacterial colonization.

Outpatients >18 years, presenting at spa facility with wound respecting selection criteria, will undergo to a wound hygiene protocol based on the use of raw sulphurous thermal water of Acque Albule, tested negative to microbiological analysis for the presence of pathogens. Subjects will be 1:1 randomized in 2 treatment arms: group A receiving sulphurous thermal water pack on soaked gauzes for 20 minutes and group B having their wound/s fully immersed in sulphurous thermal water for 20 minutes. Both arms will be treated every 48 hours up to complete wound re-epithelization. Participants will be submitted just at enrollment to wound microbiological sampling (swab). All parameters worth investigating will be assessed at each session prior to intervention (T0,2,4..) and after (T1,3,5...). Specifically wound microbiome sampling, together with pH, trans epidermal water loss (TEWL) measurements, wound fluorescence bacterial imaging, and ex-vivo microscope imaging will be recorded at each time point. Any adverse events, superinfections will be monitored and properly managed. A three months post-healing follow-up (Tf) will be performed to determine scar quality and possible wound relapse. Results will be expressed in term of intra-session (short term effects) and inter sessions(longitudinal effects) changes (delta) in order to assess the singular and the whole effects of each arm intervention. Finally differences in term of effectiveness among the two interventions will be evaluated.