The Effect of Administration of Steroid on the Wound Breaking Tensile Strength in Rats

Kwon, Nam Ho; Kim, Han Koo; Kim, Woo Seob; Bae, Tae Hui

Abstract

PURPOSE
The successful wound healing implies the scarless wound with adequate strength. It has been shown in vivo and in vitro that steroid retards the collagen synthesis. We studied the effect of steroid on the wound breaking strength in rats.
METHODS
40 Sprague-Dawley rats were evenly divided into two groups. One group was served as control, the other group was experimental. We made dorsal midline incision and closed the wound. In the experimental group, we medicated methylprednisolone(0.15mg/g/day) for 1 week. Then, we compared the differences of the breaking strength and microscopic histology between control and experimental group in 2, 4, 6 and 8 week.
RESULTS
Up to 4th week, the breaking strength of the experimental group markedly decreased than that of control group, while in 6th week the strength of experimental group attained to that of control group nearly. In histologic findings, control group demonstrated dense organization of collagen to experimental group in 4th week.
CONCLUSION
In this experiment, steroid significantly inhibited the strength gain in wound at early period of the wound healing process. When using steroid after the surgery or the wound formation, it is desirable to administrate carefully and need thorough wound management to prevent delayed wound healing.