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document
A randomised controlled trial comparing Drawtex with standard dressings for exuding wounds . OBJECTIVE This randomised controlled clinical trial compared a capillary dressing ( Drawtex , now rebranded as Vibriant RCD [ Vibriant Technology Services ] ) with routine practice for exuding wounds greater than 2.5 x 2.5 cm . METHOD The target population was 300 control and 300 test subjects across three sites in the UK , but recruitment difficulties resulted in only 125 patients being evaluable . Wound progress was recorded by nurses ' perception of the progress of wound healing and by objective digital imaging . In the final analysis digital images were randomised ( in time order ) and a panel of nurses who were not otherwise involved in the research project graded the wound 's progress . RESULTS After deconvolution of the data , the subjective ( nurse perception ) method of evaluation determined that the new dressing resulted in wound improvement in 12.7 % more patients than did routine practice , but the blinded assessment method ( based on the digital images ) showed that routine practice was better by 6.6 % . CONCLUSION Evaluation of wound progress is clearly difficult . Human nature makes us favour novelty if we believe it is going to be better . Making interpretation more objective removed that bias and did not demonstrate a significant advantage for the test dressing . The findings suggest that unblinded assessment by trial nurses is unacceptable on its own . Blinded assessments may miss finer nuances of wound progression , but are likely to be more accurate . The authors suggest that the true result lies somewhere in the middle , with the trial dressing likely to be as effective as , but not more effective than , a standard dressing .
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Intervention_Physical
Drawtex with standard dressings
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Intervention_Physical
capillary dressing
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Intervention_Physical
Drawtex , now rebranded as Vibriant RCD
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Intervention_Physical
Vibriant Technology Services
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Intervention_Physical
with routine practice for exuding wounds
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Outcome_Physical
Wound progress
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Outcome_Physical
wound improvement
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Outcome_Physical
wound progress
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Outcome_Physical
wound progression