Sterilized Polyhexanide-Releasing Chitosan Membranes with Potential for Use in Antimicrobial Wound Dressings

Wound infection is a common complication of chronic wounds. It can impair healing, which may not occur without external help. Antimicrobial dressings (AMDs) are a type of external help to infected chronic wounds. In this study, highly porous membranes made of only chitosan and containing the antiseptic polyhexanide (poly(hexamethylene biguanide); PHMB) were prepared by cryogelation, aiming to be used in AMDs. These membranes exhibited a water swelling capacity of 748%, a water drop penetration time of 11 s in a dry membrane and a water vapor transmission rate of 34,400 g HO/m/24 h when in contact with water. The best drug loading method involved simultaneous loading by soaking in a PHMB solution and sterilization by autoclaving, resulting in sterilized, drug-loaded membranes. When these membranes and a commercial PHMB-releasing AMD were assayed under the same conditions, albeit far from the in vivo conditions, their drug release kinetics were comparable, releasing PHMB for ca. 6 and 4 h, respectively. These membranes exhibited high antibacterial activity against , and , which are bacterial species commonly found in infected wounds and blood clotting activity. The obtained results suggest that these membranes may have potential for use in the development of AMDs.