The cholesterol lowering drug statin appears to be one of the most versatile drugs available today. A growing number of studies suggest that the drug, which is primarily prescribed to lower bad cholesterol levels in the blood and to reduce risks for cardiovascular disease, can also reduce risks for breast cancer and may be helpful to patients with erectile dysfunction and multiple sclerosis (MS).

Now, another research has found evidence that statins, one of the most commonly prescribed medicines worldwide, can also promote faster healing of wounds after a surgical procedure. For the new study, Gerard Fitzmaurice, from the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Our Lady's Children's Hospital, in Dublin, Ireland, and colleagues reviewed the data of 20 earlier studies on statins conducted on humans, animals and laboratory tissues to test their hypothesis that the cholesterol lowering drug has effects on the inflammatory response of the body, which could help shorten the amount of time that the wounds of patients who underwent surgeries would heal.

The researchers found that statins could indeed impact the recovery time of patients after surgery. They observed that the drug could reduce the recovery time of patients from an average of 18.7 days to just 13 days, a difference of nearly one week.

"Outcomes included a 30% earlier rate of wound epithelialization and an 80% greater wound-breaking strength combined with faster wound healing rates (13.0 days vs 18.7 days, p < 0.0001)," Fitzmaurice and colleagues wrote on their study "Do Statins Have a Role in the Promotion of Postoperative Wound Healing in Cardiac Surgical Patients?" which was published in The Annals of Thoracic Surgery on June 28.

The researchers also noted that statins can also potentially result in smaller scars. They also identified wounds from cardiovascular surgery that could benefit from statin therapy including leg wounds due to long saphenous vein (LSV) harvesting, chest wounds from sternotomies and arm wounds from radial artery harvesting albeit they said that the wound healing benefits of statin therapy could also benefit those with other kinds of surgical wounds.

The researchers said that while it is difficult to pinpoint exactly how statins could improve wound healing, they said that the cholesterol lowering drug appears to have an effect on the body's inflammatory response.

"Based on the encouraging results in the systematic review, we would recommend consideration of an appropriately conducted, randomized-controlled double-blind clinical trial to comprehensively assess the potential role of topical statins in the promotion of post-operative wound healing," Fitzmaurice said.