GATWICK, UK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--New evidence presented on Wednesday 15th May 2013 at the European Wound Management Association (EWMA)’s conference in Copenhagen, revealed that elevated protease activity (EPA) was detected in almost half the wounds (43%) that resulted in skin graft failure¹.

In the thirty patient study carried out and presented by Prof. Franck Duteille MD, Head of Department of Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery, University Hospital, Nantes, France, three out of four (75%) split thickness skin grafts failed in wounds that tested positive for EPA immediately prior to performing the graft procedure¹ . This confirms EPA as a highly predictive marker which could help surgeons target skin graft procedures more effectively and thus increase their success rates.

“Systagenix’ WOUNDCHEK™ Protease Status is the only commercially available point of care test able to detect EPA” comments Paolo Di Vincenzo, Systagenix Vice President Global Marketing. “Studies continue to show the utility of testing for EPA with WOUNDCHEK™ Protease Status in helping guide treatment and increase success rates. In Prof. Duteille’s study, 96% of grafts that succeeded had low protease activity. For the grafts that failed, almost half of them were associated with EPA. With graft procedures costing up to €6,000², and resulting in a significant amount of patient discomfort, any failure rate is too high. By testing for EPA with WOUNDCHEK™ Protease Status, surgeons may be able to increase their success rates by avoiding almost half of their failed graft procedures and saving a substantial amount of resource, and funds, as well as avoiding a disappointing setback for the patients affected.”

Clinicians have long suspected the detrimental effect of protease activity on skin graft ability to take, as described in a recent consensus publication on this topic: “A point of care protease activity test could be used prior to use of skin grafts in order to improve the success rate of surgery as EPA has been identified as a possible contributing factor to graft failure.”³

Established in 2008, following the acquisition of Johnson & Johnson’s professional wound care business, Systagenix is 100% dedicated to wound care, developing and marketing advanced wound diagnostic and therapeutic solutions and supplying over 20 million advanced wound dressings per month globally.

WOUNDCHEK™ Protease Status is not currently cleared by FDA for sale within the US market.

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1. Duteille F et al, Evaluation of the use of a point of care test for proteases to identify patients with increased risk of skin graft failure, Poster presented at EWMA 2013

2. DRG case value (J08B) = cost weight (1,979) x base rate (2.991,53 € BBFW2012) (Germany)

3. Die Rolle eines Proteasen Schnelltests in der Wunddiagnostik. (2012) Wund Management.