Zinc topical and iontophoresis approaches in treatment of standardized leg burns: animal model

ABSTRACT

This study was designed to compare the effects of Zinc application [Topical and Iontophoresis approaches] on burn wound healing of rats. It included 30 albino rats with second degree burn wound in their left hind limb and were divided randomly into two groups of equal number, 15 rats each, the first one received topical zinc and the other one received zinc iontophoresis. The parameters used for evaluation involved burn surface area measured by tracing wound perimeter and quantitative culture [number of bacterial growth] as an index of burn wound healing, pre and post treatment applications [after one and two weeks]. These two parameters were measured 24 hours post-inflicted burn and 2 times post initiation of zinc therapy at one week interval and the same for colony count. The pre treatment results revealed no significant difference between the mean values of both parameters of both groups, while after two weeks of treatment applications, the findings showed that there was a significant difference between pre treatment and post two weeks for both groups with higher improvement in zinc iontophoresis group. Therefore, it may be of value for physical therapist to consider zinc iontophoresis as a method for treating burn patients