Chronic pressure ulcers are a major source of morbidity and mortality in persons with spinal cord injury. Weight loss associated with protein depletion is directly related to poor wound healing and increased surgical risk.
Anabolic steroids have been used to promote healing and weight gain in persons with burns, surgical wounds, and pressure ulcers. Oxandrolone is an anabolic steroid approved for the treatment of involuntary weight loss or chronic infections. Oxandrolone is no better than placebo for healing pressure ulcers or increasing the percentage of them that remain closed after eight weeks of treatment, according to a new study.
Researchers sought to determine the efficacy of oxandrolone to heal chronic subdermal pressure ulcers of the pelvic region in patients whose wounds did not respond to standard treatment methods.
Two-hundred-twelve inpatients with spinal cord injury and stage III or IV target pressure ulcers (TPUs) were randomly assigned to oxandrolone, 20 mg/d (n=108) or placebo (n=104) for 24 weeks or until ulcers healed. After 24 weeks, a total of 24 percent of the TPUs had healed for patients in the oxandrolone group, and 30 percent of the TPUs had healed for patients in the placebo group.
This outcome shows that oxandrolone would have no treatment benefit over placebo for chronic pressure ulcers.