Honey Beats Traditional Treatment for Burn Wounds

Comparison Between Topical Honey and Mafenide Acetate in Treatment of Burn Wounds
Ann Burns Fire Disasters, 2011 Sep 30;24(3):132-7

Histological and clinical studies of wound healing were performed in comparable cases of fresh partial-thickness burns treated with honey dressing or mafenide acetate in two groups of 50 randomly allocated patients.

Of the patients with honey-treated wounds, 84% showed satisfactory epithelialization by day 7 and 100% by day 21. In wounds treated with mafenide acetate, epithelialization occurred by day 7 in 72% of cases and in 84% by day 21. Histological evidence of reparative activity was observed in 80% of wounds treated with honey dressing by day 7 with minimal inflammation.

Fifty-two per cent of the mafenide acetate treated wounds showed reparative activity with inflammatory changes by day 7. Reparative activity reached 100% by day 21 with the honey dressing and 84% with mafenide acetate.

Thus, in honey-dressed wounds, early subsidence of acute inflammatory changes, better control of infection, and quicker wound healing were observed, while in mafenide acetate treated wounds a sustained inflammatory reaction was noted even on epithelialization.