The Utility of Silk Bioprotein as a Wound Dressing in Female-to-Male Double-Incision Mastectomy

Medical adhesive-related skin injuries (MARSIs) affect approximately 1.5 million patients annually in the United States are one of the most overlooked complications of surgery. MARSI is a condition secondary to the use of surgical tapes, dressings, and tissue adhesives which can lead to a host of postoperative complications such as allergic contact dermatitis (ACD), wound dehiscence, surgical-site infections (SSIs), and in extreme cases sepsis. A commonly utilized surgical dressing is the Dermabond and Dermabond/Prineo system. Allergic dermatitis to these dressings is an increasingly reported adverse reaction in multiple surgical specialties; moreover, the FDA has found that approximately 75% of the adverse events reported with Dermabond/Prineo were related to ACD. These dressings are reported to produce mechanical skin tears and blisters, which can damage epidermal cells and compromise the protective skin layer, making patients susceptible to infection and other wound-related complications.

Silk bioprotein dressings have shown promise due to their biocompatibility and regenerative properties, potentially reducing MARSI compared to the Dermabond/Prineo system, which remains a standard choice for many surgical procedures. A plethora of preclinical and clinical studies have demonstrated the safety and efficacy of silk in tissue engineering, and recently only two studies have utilized this technology as a surgical site dressing demonstrating its safety and utility compared to other standard wound dressings such as Dermabond/Prineo. Despite these findings, these recent studies utilized a small cohort of patients and had a relatively diverse patient population in regard to type of surgery performed. Therefore, the comparative efficacy of Silk bioprotein dressing remains undetermined. Silk bioprotein dressings and Dermabond/Prineo are both currently used in the IU Health system as surgical wound dressings.

Double-incision mastectomy, a common procedure for female-to-male gender affirmation surgery, is a relatively standardized procedure in terms of wound dimensions, tissue dissection, and closure tension; additionally, all patients undergoing this procedure by definition will receive bilateral procedures. This uniformity allows for a unique study design where patients can serve as their own internal controls. Prior to the introduction of Silk bioprotein dressings to the IU Health/Eskenazi hospital systems, the majority of these surgical wounds were dressed with Dermabond/Prineo, whereas now it is mixed based on product availability. Our study aims to better elucidate the wound healing outcomes of Silk dressing using a patient population that are not only undergoing a fairly standardized surgical procedure, but could also serve as their own internal controls. Our decision would dress one incision with silk dressings, and the other with Dermabond/Prineo. This approach minimizes variability and imposes minimal risk, ensuring a robust comparison of outcomes between the two dressings, and will add data to the current literature on the utility of silk bioprotein dressings in surgical wound care.