Effect of gamma-irradiation sterilization on the physical and mechanical properties of a hybrid wound dressing

A wound dressing should ideally provide an optimal healing environment which enables rapid healing. It should maintain a moist environment at the wound surface, allow gas exchange, act as a barrier to microorganisms, remove excess exudates and afford mechanical protection to the wound. A new bioresorbable hybrid wound dressing which combines a poly(DL-lactic-co-glycolic acid) porous top layer with a spongy collagen sublayer was developed and studied. The top layer contained the antibiotic drug gentamicin for controlled release to the wound site. It is of very high importance to use an appropriate sterilization process for this special new wound dressing, which will not have a deleterious effect on its function. Our investigation therefore focused on the effects of gamma-irradiation sterilization (10, 25, 35 and 50 kGy) on the structure properties of this wound dressing. The physical and mechanical properties were of the wound dressings were affected by the gamma irradiation because of a combination of chain scission and crosslinking of the collagen layer mainly. The weight loss and water vapor transmission rate were increased, while the water uptake was decreased with the increase in the irradiation dose. The changes were small when doses of 10 or 25 kGy were applied at room temperature. The gamma-irradiation resulted in stronger but more brittle wound dressings. These trends were smaller when the sterilization process was carried out in liquid nitrogen. Our research shows that gamma-sterilization process is feasible for our new concept of hybrid wound dressings and optimal conditions can be chosen.