Novel approach for chronic wound treatment by autologous transplantation
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* Viroj Wiwanitkit

I read the recent pilot report on the novel approach for chronic wound treatment with great interest. Shukla and colleagues1 concluded that “Autologous noncultured epidermal cell suspension transplantation seems to be an effective, simple and time-saving method to treat chronic non-healing wounds.”1 Indeed, the autologous cell transplantation is a new approach for medical treatment. It is reported to be an acceptable one-step process for treatment of wounds in animal models.2 However, there are some concerns on the use of this technique in humans. First, both subjective and objective assessment on the outcome should be performed to ascertain the effectiveness of this technique.3 Second, the cell concentration and dosage is an important factor of concern in this specific therapeutic approach.4 Third, it would be interesting to know the cost and cost-effectiveness of this new technique.

## Footnotes

*   **Competing interests:** None declared.

## References

1.  Shukla VK, Tiwary SK, Barnwal S, et al.Effect of autologous epidermal cell suspension transplantation in chronic nonhealing wounds: a pilot study.Can J Surg 2010;53:6–10.
    
    

2.  Wood FM, Stoner ML, Fowler BV, et al.The use of a non-cultured autologous cell suspension and Integra dermal regeneration template to repair full-thickness skin wounds in a porcine model: a one-step process.Burns 2007;33:693–700.
    
    [CrossRef](http://canjsurg.ca/lookup/external-ref?access_num=10.1016/j.burns.2006.10.388&link_type=DOI) 
    
    [PubMed](http://canjsurg.ca/lookup/external-ref?access_num=17485177&link_type=MED&atom=%2Fcjs%2F53%2F6%2FE7.1.atom) 
    
    [Web of Science](http://canjsurg.ca/lookup/external-ref?access_num=000249670700002&link_type=ISI) 

3.  van Geel N, Ongenae K, Vander Haeghen Y, et al.Subjective and objective evaluation of noncultured epidermal cellular grafting for repigmenting vitiligo.Dermatology 2006;213:23–9.
    
    [PubMed](http://canjsurg.ca/lookup/external-ref?access_num=16778422&link_type=MED&atom=%2Fcjs%2F53%2F6%2FE7.1.atom) 

4.  Tegta GR, Parsad D, Majumdar S, et al.Efficacy of autologous transplantation of noncultured epidermal suspension in two different dilutions in the treatment of vitiligo.Int J Dermatol 2006;45:106–10.
    
    [CrossRef](http://canjsurg.ca/lookup/external-ref?access_num=10.1111/j.1365-4632.2004.02403.x&link_type=DOI) 
    
    [PubMed](http://canjsurg.ca/lookup/external-ref?access_num=16445497&link_type=MED&atom=%2Fcjs%2F53%2F6%2FE7.1.atom) 
    
    [Web of Science](http://canjsurg.ca/lookup/external-ref?access_num=000234799600004&link_type=ISI)