Medical Honey and Silver Dressings Do Not Interfere with Each Other's Key Functional Attributes

This study sought to determine whether silver-containing dressings and medical-grade honey gel interfere with one another in measurable ways.

Dressings applied together in clinical use were tested using in vitro and ex vivo methods to determine whether the combined modalities maintain their individual properties. In order to determine if the presence of silver dressings interfere with honey's osmotic strength, which is a key physical property of medical honey, changes in honey's 2 primary sugars were measured, as well as changes in its overall osmotic strength. Finally, the antibacterial barrier activity of the dressings were tested individually and in honey/silver pairs in 2 in vitro models with 2 clinical strains of bacteria.

The data demonstrate that honey with silver dressings resulted in an increased osmolarity, since both the concentration of the 2 primary sugars in honey as well as its overall osmolarity increased. The data also demonstrate that the in vitro antibacterial barrier activity seen with silver-containing dressings does not decrease with the addition of medical honey and in some instances increased.

Altogether, these data suggest that these 2 classes of dressings do not interfere with each other. Clinical evidence is still required to fully validate these findings.