Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Honey Beats Traditional Dressings for Skin Grafts

A Pilot Study on the Usage of Honey Hydrogel and Safecare Hydrogel Dressing in the Treatment of Split Skin Graft Donor Sites
2nd International Conference on the Medicinal Use of Honey
Kota Bharu, Malaysia, 13th - 16th January, 2010
F H Imran-Kelly, A A Dorai, W S Azman, A S Halim
Reconstructive Sciences Unit, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 16150, Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, Malaysia

BACKGROUND: A pilot study was performed to investigate two dressing materials with regards to their healing of split skin graft donor sites.

METHODS: Patients who undergo split skin grafting were screened for this study. They were required to meet the inclusion & exclusion criteria. Using simple randomisation, 50 patients were assigned into 2 groups, 25 patients received commercially available Safecare Hydrogel dressing and 25 received Honey Hydrogel dressing applied to their split skin graft donor sites. All donor sites are inspected on the 5th, 10th and 15th post-operative day. The parameters assessed are wound healing, pain assessment and complication rates.

RESULTS: There was a difference observed in both the healing rates and pain assessment between both groups. There with 99.8% wound healing rate in the Honey Hydrogel group versus 96% in the Safecare hydrogel group. The discomfort level was less with the Honey Hydrogel group, requiring less analgesia than the Safecare Hydrogel group.

CONCLUSION: The results prove the initial study hypothesis that Honey Hydrogel is better than Safecare Hydrogel in optimizing the healing of split skin graft donor sites. This is an ongoing study so the effectiveness of Honey Hydrogel is continually being investigated.

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