The Role of Recombinant Proteins and Growth Factors in the Management of Diabetic Foot Ulcers: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials

Table 4

Outcomes of RCTs that evaluated EGF safety and effectiveness.

Ref	Type of growth factor	Wound closure	Mean time to heal in treatment groups	Mechanism mentioned as complete healing		Confounders				Further outcomes
				Granulation tissue	Reepithelialization	Sex	Baseline HbA1c	Wound size	Offloading	Recurrence rate	Amputation rate
[16]	EGF	More complete healing in the rhEGF group (); decreased in area size (); and more epithelial islands in the wound bed were present ()	8 weeks	Y	Y	NM	NM	NM	NM	NM	NM
[17]	EGF	Granulation tissue covering ≥50% of the ulcer at 2 weeks was achieved by more cases in the EGF groups (). Shorter time to complete healing in the 75 μg group ()	3 weeks	Y	NM	NM	NM	NM	NM	2 cases in the placebo group	29 cases in all groups
[18]	EGF	Reduced seropurulent discharge in the EGF group and serous discharge . More granulation tissue . More complete healing in the EGF group	()	Y	NM	NM	NM	NM	NM	NM	NM
[19]	EGF	More cases with complete healing in the 0.04% hEGF group. Patients in the 0.04% hEGF group also healed more quickly than those in the other groups (). No significant difference in healing time between the 0.02% hEGF and control groups	6 weeks in the 0.04% hEGF group ()	Y	Y	N	NM	NM	NM	NM	2 cases in placebo and 2 in 0.02% hEGF groups
[20]	EGF, REGEN-D150	For wounds >6 cm^2 in size treatment resulted in more healing (). A reduced healing time in the EGF group. At the end of 10 weeks, 69% of wounds healed versus 21% in placebo control	9 weeks	Y	Y	NM	NM	NM	NM	NM	NM

EGF: epidermal growth factor; Y: yes; N: no; NM: not mentioned.