Saturday, June 08, 2013

Sterilized Honey Combats Infections in Dialysis Catheters

Jim Kling, Medscape Today, 5/20/2013

ISTANBUL, Turkey — A sterilized honey preparation was effective in preventing infections at the site of peritoneal dialysis catheters, according to a study presented here at the European Renal Association-European Dialysis and Transplant Association (ERA-EDTA) 50th Congress.
However, the honey preparation underperformed versus mupirocin in patients with diabetes, said presenter Carolyn van Eps, PhD, staff nephrologist at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, in Brisbane, Australia.
There is little evidence regarding the optimal strategy for prevention of infection in peritoneal dialysis catheters. "Honey has potential advantages," Dr. van Eps told Medscape Medical News. "A very broad range of germs are covered by honey, including gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, and fungi, as well as multi-drug resistant organisms. And it has not been shown in any study to induce antibiotic resistance, which can be a problem with mupirocin. Honey also helps disrupt biofilms," which can develop on the surface of catheters…
"Honey was not better and not worse compared to mupirocin. Patients with diabetes seemed to do a bit worse when we used honey compared to mupirocin, and there were more withdrawals from the trial in people who used honey, and that was due to a combination of reasons because the patients or physician wanted to withdraw, or they got a local reaction," said Dr. van Eps.

"For those reasons, honey is probably not the ideal firstline recommendation, but it probably does have a role in patients who we know have organisms that are resistant to mupirocin, or in patients who have local reactions to mupirocin," she said…

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