Honey Speeds Healing of Leg Ulcers

Derma Sciences' MEDIHONEY(TM) Proven to Speed Healing in Stalled Leg Ulcers
Randomized controlled study finds significant healing and anti-infective benefits, providing hope for patients and caregivers

PRINCETON, N.J., Sept. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Derma Sciences, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: DSCI) announced today that its key product, MEDIHONEY(TM) Wound & Burn Dressing with Active Leptospermum Honey, has been found in a large randomized controlled clinical trial to significantly improve the healing rates of stalled venous leg ulcers. Prior to this study, no other advanced wound care dressing, under compression therapy, had been shown to improve healing rates of leg ulcers. Physicians treat over 4 million leg ulcers in the US per year, at a cost exceeding $1 billion.

The trial, a 108-patient randomized and controlled clinical trial, looked at venous leg ulcers that had been proven to be non-healing under standard treatment (compression therapy). In the study, half the patients had a common advanced wound care gel added to the standard treatment, and half had Comvita's Active Leptospermum (Manuka) Honey (now marketed under the brand name MEDIHONEY) added. After four weeks, the mean reduction in size of the wounds was 34% in the honey group and 13% in the control group. After 12 weeks, there was a 44% complete healing rate in the honey group vs. only 33% in the control group. Both these differences were statistically significant…

The findings were published in the Journal of Clinical Nursing, and were written by lead investigators Georgina T. Gethin and Seamus Cowman, both of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. They concluded that, "the [honey] group had shown a greater incidence of healing, more effective desloughing, and lower incidence of infection than the control group."…