Case study: treating an infected wound of unknown aetiology

There are occasions when patients present with wounds where the aetiology is unknown. Planning care for these patients is dependent on the wound assessment and treating the clinical symptoms for example infection. Wound infection is often regarded as a challenging problem for clinicians and a considerable financial burden for the NHS (Patel, 2009). From a patient perspective, wound infection presents with unpleasant symptoms such as increased exudate, pain, swelling and malodour (Barrett et al, 2010). The introduction of antibiotics in the late 1940s and 1950s had a huge impact on the control of bacterial infections, however recently due to bacterial resistance, topical antimicrobials such as honey are starting to regain their appeal in the treatment of wound infection (Van der Weyden, 2003; Moffatt, 2006). The aim of this case study is to demonstrate how a honey dressing was used to treat an infected wound of unknown aetiology.