Bifunctional Analgesic-Pro-Healing Hydrogel Dressing for Postoperative Analgesia and Wound Healing in Mice

Incision dressings play a crucial role in postoperative care, while hydrogel, as a commonly used polymeric material, can effectively maintain wound moisture and promote wound healing. The present study aims to fabricate a dual-functional hydrogel dressing, carboxymethyl chitosan hydrogel loaded with the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug flurbiprofen (hCMPG-FP), for alleviating postoperative acute pain and promoting incision healing. hCMPG-FP exhibits excellent properties such as gelation, drug release, and degradation, and, in particular, possesses good incision conformability after secondary lyophilization. In vitro and in vivo experiments have confirmed that hCMPG-FP can exert dual functions of wound healing promotion and analgesia, which is associated with the antibacterial activity, coagulation-promoting effect, and cell migration-promoting ability of carboxymethyl chitosan hydrogel, as well as the analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties of flurbiprofen. In conclusion, when acting on incisions, hCMPG-FP regulates multiple pathways such as wound healing and inflammation modulation, exerts ideal dressing functions, and provides a theoretical basis and experimental evidence for the further development of innovative wound treatment strategies.