I just watched some of the webinars from surgeons presenting on the PolyNovo website and wow, this is really going to become the gold standard. I've just posted the screen shots on the conclusions from three of the surgeons I just watched:
- Dr. Sigrid Blome-Eberwein, Plastic Surgeon, Lehigh Valley Health Network, PA, USA
- Dr Kyle J. Chepla, Plastic Surgeon, MetroHealth Medical Centre, Cleveland, OH, USA
- Dr Carsten Krohn, Pediatric Burn and Trauma Surgeon, Munich Pediatric Surgery Clinic in Schwabing, Germany
What was interesting to hear in Dr Blome-Eberwein's presentation was her comment in response to a question about how long you can leave it in for, she said the longest she left it in was 2.5 months, but that can leave it even longer and "it won’t necessarily separate like Integra separates". She said “it doesn’t melt” like other biologics where you lose the matrix and you’re right back to square zero.
I can't remember which other surgeon it was, I think it was Dr Krohn, but it appears a major pressure point with using biologics like Integra's is that if you leave it on too long, the template can just separate or break down too fast - so surgeons can be pressured to do a skin graft earlier than they would like out of fear they they might lose the whole template. With BTM - the surgeons are saying, you can take your time, with BTM the wound bed will remain stable and you can do the skin graft when you feel the patient is ready. BTM clearly enables a much better vascularisation process for integration and the time it gives surgeons to let the patient heal and be ready for the graft is critical to success.
On the subject of infection, it was interesting to hear from Dr Krohn that if you are using BTM and there is an infection - it is possible to clean out the infection without having to remove the template whereas with a biologic, as soon as you get an infection - you'd lose it and have to start all over - ouch. He said that BTM "Solves problems that used to be big problems - it makes them small problems".
Anyone who is unsure about the efficacy of BTM over biologics should just listen to the surgeons that have used it - they are amazed and they all seem to be using it in more and more of their procedures. I also liked how they talked about how they were referred to BTM from other surgeons and how they were also doing the same. It's so good, surgeons will ultimately become our best sales reps.
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(20min delay)