EFFECT OF TOPICAL PHENYTOIN CREAM ON LINEAR INCISIONAL WOUND HEALING IN ALBINO RATS

Abstract

In this study, the effect of phenytoin cream on linear incisional wound healing was investigated. Thirty
male Wistar rats were subjected to a linear 3cm incision made over the skin of the back. The animals were
randomly divided into 3 experimental, control, cold cream and treatment groups. Control group did not
receive any drug or cold cream. Cold cream group received topical cold cream once a day from the
beginning of experiments until the day that wounds were closed. Treatment group were treated topically
by 1% phenytoin cream at the same time. For computation of the percentage of wound healing, the area
of the wound were measured at the beginning of experiments and the next 2,4,6,8,10,12,14 and 16 days.
The percentage of the healing wounds were calculated by Walker formula after measurement of the
wound area. Results showed that there weren’t statistically significant differences between treatment and
cold cream animals (P>0.05) in most of the days. It is concluded that phenytoin has possibly no
significant effect on the rate of wound closing in acute wound model of incision in rat. Therefore further
study is required for detection of the role of phenytoin on wound healing and the related parameters in
various kinds of experimental wound models.