Honey Wound Dressing Outperforms Traditional Treatment

A Comparative Study to Evaluate the Effect of Honey Dressing and Silver Sulfadiazene Dressing on Wound Healing in Burn Patients
Indian J Plast Surg, 2009 Jul;42(2):176-81

To compare the effect of honey dressing and silver-sulfadiazene (SSD) dressing on wound healing in burn patients...

After washing with normal saline, undiluted pure honey was applied over the wounds of patients in the honey group (n=37) and SSD cream over the wounds of patients in SSD group (n=41), everyday. Wound was dressed with sterile gauze, cotton pads and bandaged. Status of the wound was assessed every third and seventh day and on the day of completion of study. Patients were followed up every fortnight till epithelialization. The bacteriological examination of the wound was done every seventh day...

The average duration of healing in patients treated with honey and SSD dressing at any time of admission was 18.16 and 32.68 days, respectively. Wound of all those patients (100%) who reported within 1 hour became sterile with honey dressing in less than 7 days while none with SSD. All of the wounds became sterile in less than 21 days with honey, while this was so in only 36.5% with SSD treated wounds.

The honey group included 33 patients reported within 24 hour of injury, and 26 out of them had complete outcome at 2 months of follow-up, while numbers for the SSD group were 32 and 12. Complete outcome for any admission point of time after 2 months was noted in 81% and 37% of patients in the honey group and the SSD group.

Honey dressing improves wound healing, makes the wound sterile in lesser time, has a better outcome in terms of prevention of hypertrophic scarring and post-burn contractures, and decreases the need of debridement irrespective of time of admission, when compared to SSD dressing...

Conclusion

Delay in hospital admission increases wound contamination and infection thereby delaying wound healing which has a detrimental effect on final outcomes. Since honey dressing improves wound healing by rendering it sterile in lesser duration of time, wounds thus treated have a better outcome in terms of hypertrophic scarring and post-burn contractures; this is due to the fact that early healing mitigates the need for debridement at when compared to SSD dressing. Hence, Honey dressing is a better option for dressing in burns, in terms of decreased morbidity, economy, patient well-being and speedy rehabilitation.