In-vitro Activity of Honey and Topical Silver in Wound Care Management

With the rise of multidrug resistance among pathogens, especially in wound care management is of great concern. Hence, we designed to study the in-vitro activity of topical agents honey and silver against wound infection and compares silver and honey dressings used in wound care.

172 isolates from burn and surgical wounds were isolated from patients admitted to Nursing College, Changchun University Of Chinese Medicine, China during 2013-2014 are included in the study. 59 Pseudomonas, 41 E.coli, 28 S aureus, 25 Klebsiella pneumoniae, 11 Proteus, 8 Acinetobacter were isolated. Susceptibility testing for honey and silver nitrate was done using the agar dilution method. 80 patients were divided into 2 groups. Type 1 used Algivon with UMF12 honey coated dressing for 40 patients and the other 40 patients received Type II used Acti-coat silver absorbent dressings. 30 patients received ordinary dressings were included as control group patients.

50/59 (84.7%) Pseudomonas spp, 39 (95.1%) of E.coli and 26/28 (92.9%) S. aureus were sensitive for silver nitrate. K. pneumoniae, Proteus spp and Acinetobacter spp showed 100% sensitivity for silver nitrate by agar dilution method. All the isolates showed 100% sensitivity for honey at concentration. In type I - honey coated dressings consist of 40 patients with 18 (45%) male and 22 (55%) female patients. Type II - silver-coated dressings consist of 40 patients with 24 (60%) females and 16 (40%) male patients.

This study results showed positive efforts on improvising in wound dressings as a replacement to lower antimicrobial resistance and limit racial use of antibiotics.