EUROPEAN  TISSUE  REPAIR  SOCIETY

THE STATUS OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN TISSUE REPAIR AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 21ST CENTURY
Proceedings of an ETRS Focus Meeting

THOUGH different therapies for treating wounds have been practised since the beginning of civilisation, it has really been at the end of the last century that a major revolution in knowledge and practice has taken place. One example of this is an appreciation of the role of growth factors in tissue repair from the moment of injury to scar maturation. This research has resulted in one of these growth factors, PDGF, being approved by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States for treating diabetic wounds and venous ulcers. Similar progress from basic research to clinical utilisation has occurred in tissue engineering where laboratory research has led to the development of skin substitutes which have been have been approved for clinical use to enhance healing and improve the quality of scar formation. The awareness of the role of controlling physical parameters such as topical negative pressure (TNP) and wound temperature has led to these treatments, particularly TNP, becoming a major part of the armentarium of the clinician in treating wounds.

A major basis for the clinical approval of these new therapies has rested on demonstrating their efficacy through evidence-based medicine. The controversial notion of the randomised-controlled trial as being the only valid means of clinical evaluation of wound healing therapies has been vigorously discussed.

In September 2002 the ETRS sponsored a Focus meeting on the Status of New Technologies and Tissue Repair which was held in Nice, France. This meeting was extremely successful in both the contributions of the speakers and the input from all of the participants. This special issue of the ETRS Bulletin presents an up-date of these contributions.

Dr George W. Cherry
Editor