Hemostasis of Oral Surgery Wounds With the HemCon Dental Dressing

Purpose This study evaluated the efficacy of the HemCon Dental Dressing (HDD; HemCon Medical Technologies, Inc, Beaverton, OR) hemostatic oral wound dressing derived from the US military HemCon Bandage combat wound dressing and whether early hemostasis affects postoperative care and surgical healing outcomes following oral surgical procedures. Patients and Methods All patients aged 18 to 90, except those allergic to seafood, who consented to participate were eligible for enrollment into this study regardless of other medical history findings. All patients were required to have 2 or more surgical sites so they would have internal surgical control sites. All patients taking oral anticoagulation therapy (OAT) were included for treatment in this study without altering their anticoagulant medication regimens. All data were evaluated by biomedical statisticians and Institutional Review Board approval was obtained. Results All HDD surgically treated sites, including all from patients taking OAT, achieved hemostasis in less than 1 minute and control wounds in 9.53 minutes ( P < .001). All HDD sites achieved hemostasis sooner than control sites ( P