HYDROCYN aqua

On contact with the wound bed, HYDROCYN aqua creates a near-neutral yet biologically active environment that helps reduce the microbial load; this contributes to balancing the alkaline pH often seen in chronic wounds, creating a healing environment more favorable to cellular activity. The irrigation effect mechanically removes necrotic debris, fibrin and biofilm, increasing the effectiveness of autolytic debridement and making it easier to achieve a clean wound bed while preserving viable tissue. The absorbent secondary dressing used after applying the solution absorbs the removed fluid, microbial load and sloughed tissue, providing exudate control; this combination contributes both to reducing the risk of infection and to limiting mechanical trauma and pain during dressing changes.

HYDROCYN aqua’s active ingredient, HOCl, causes multi-target oxidative damage to the cell wall, membrane lipids and enzymatic proteins of microorganisms, contributing to rapid microbial inactivation; this multi-target principle differs from the single-target mechanisms of conventional antibiotics, so the development of lasting, selection-driven resistance is expected to be lower, although protective adaptation mechanisms against HOCl stress have been described in bacteria (2, 3).

With regard to biofilm, it has been shown that HOCl can suppress early biofilm formation in particular and can significantly reduce biofilm burden in some in vitro models; however, there are also studies reporting that its efficacy may decrease in complex biofilm environments depending on protein load and organic material (1, 4).

Compared with conventional antiseptics, it has been reported that the antimicrobial efficacy of agents such as povidone-iodine can be linked to cytotoxicity, whereas HOCl-containing solutions can show a lower cytotoxicity profile while suppressing biofilm in some cell culture studies; this may offer a clinical advantage in terms of tissue compatibility in irrigation and wound cleansing (1, 5).

Taken together, these properties position HOCl-based irrigation solutions as a rational option at the wound cleansing step, owing to their rapid microbial action, their contribution to biofilm control and their relatively gentler profile toward viable tissue (1, 5).