Bioabsorbable Poly(vinyl alcohol)–Citric Acid Dressings: Wound Healing Studies in an Experimental In Vivo Model

Background: The wound healing process presents notable challenges for nurs- ing teams, requiring extensive knowledge of wound care materials. A nanoparticle-free, bioabsorbable pol-yvinyl alcohol (PVA) with citric acid (CA) dressing produced by simple electrospin-ning was evaluated to treat acute wound healing in rats. This PVA-CA combi- nation promotes crosslinking, increases the dressing capacity of absorption and confers heal-ing properties due to the citric acid antioxidant action. Methods: The dressing was tested in a quantitative experiment on 1.9 cm acute dermatological lesions in rats (n = 12), com-paring the PVA-CA-treated group with the untreated control group (CG). Samples were collected at 3, 7 and 14 days after lesion induction to evaluate the inflammatory process and tissue healing. Results: The macroscopic and histological data on the third day showed similar characteristics in both groups; however, after fourteen days, the PVA- CA group exhibited complete healing, accompanied by recomposition of the skin layers, whereas the wounds in the CG did not close completely. Conclusions: The results highlight that electrospun PVA-AC dressings improve healing outcomes and constitute a prom-ising and affordable solution, providing a suitable environment for tissue repair, re-ducing in- flammatory cell infiltration, blood vessel formation, and restoration of epi-thelial tissue, reducing the time of the healing process of acute wounds.