Honey Better Than Silver Dressings for Burn Wound Healing

A Systematic Review and Meta Analysis of Dressings used for Wound Healing: The Efficiency of Honey Compared to Silver on Burns

Contemp Nurse. 2016 Mar 30:1-25

BACKGROUND:

Honey has the antibacterial effect of silver without the toxic effect of silver on the skin. Even so, silver is the dominant antibacterial dressing used in wound healing.

OBJECTIVES:

 To evaluate the healing effects of honey dressings compared to silver dressings for acute or chronic wounds.

DESIGN:

A systematic review with meta-analysis.

METHOD:

The search, conducted in seven databases, resulted in six RCT studies from South Asia focusing on antibacterial properties and healing times of honey and silver.

RESULT:

Honey was more efficacious for wound healing than silver, as measured in the number of days needed for wounds to heal, (pooled risk difference -20, 95% CI -0.29 to -0.11, p< 0.001). Honey turned out to have more antibacterial qualities than silver.

CONCLUSION:

All the included studies based on burns showed the unequivocal result that honey had an even more positive effect than silver on wound healing. Because the effect of silver and honey was examined on burns only, there is still insufficient evidence to guide clinical practice in areas other than burns.