A recent clinical study found that patients experienced nearly a 70% reduction in pain when MPM Medical Inc.’s Regenecare HA hydrogel was used prior to and during the changing of their wound dressings. The finding comes at a time when a cross-section of American thought leaders are calling the lack of proper pain management a national healthcare crisis. In answer, members of Congress have united to sponsor the National Pain Care Policy Act of 2008 (H.R. 2994) to improve “pain research, education, access and care.”

“Pain management is at a critical juncture in American health care,” said MPM Medical President Paul Miller. “Many people are suffering needlessly. This recent study is just one of many over the last several years showing that Regenecare and other MPM products are unique within the field of wound care and pain management.”

Regenecare is one of many proprietary wound care and pain management products offered by MPM Medical, a subsidiary of RBC Life Sciences, Inc.— a leading provider of evidence-based nutritional supplements and personal care products. The Kroger Co. began carrying Regenecare HA in its 1,900 pharmacies earlier this year. Consumers may also purchase MPM’s products from the company Web site, http://www.mpmmedicalinc.com.

Presented in October at the Clinical Symposium on Advances in Skin and Wound Care in Las Vegas, the study evaluated 47 patients suffering from deep, painful wounds, including various kinds of ulcers and surgical and trauma wounds.

Given that patients consistently rate the changing of wound dressings as the time of greatest pain, the study focused on this aspect of pain management. The 47 patients received the first dressing change without the use of Regenecare or any type of pain medication. During subsequent dressing changes, they received Regenecare gel.

The study concluded that Regenecare reduced the pain patients suffered during wound dressing changes by a “very highly significant amount.” Based on a 10-level scale, patient-reported pain averaged 6.8 before using Regenecare. When the Regenecare gel was used prior to and after dressing changes, patient-reported pain averaged 2.3—nearly a 70% reduction.

The study attributed the pain-reducing benefits to Regenecare’s 2% lidocaine-HCI, its high-molecular-weight aloe vera extract and marine collagen—a natural humectant and moisturizer that has been shown to enhance wound repair mechanisms within the epidermis.

Another study presented this year at the 33^rd Annual Congress of the Oncology Nursing Society reported similarly impressive results. More than 85 percent of the oncology patients participating in the trial said Regenecare dramatically reduced itching and pain and promoted healing of the often-severe skin rashes associated with anti-cancer drugs.

“In recent years, there has been growing evidence that the experience of living with a chronic wound has a huge impact on a patient’s quality of life,” the study’s principal researcher, Brad Pontani, M.D., medical director of the Southeast Texas Hyperbaric Medicine Center, said, citing an article in the International Wound Journal. “The significance of pain in wound healing is much neglected because of biases against pain management in general, a lack of knowledge in available analgesics and difficulties associated with pain measurement.”