Honey Heals Better Than Traditional Burn Treatments

The statistics speak for themselves - honey heals better than SSD treatments used on burn patients - 18 days vs 32 days! In fact, the methodology is completely different. Typical burn unit protocols include scrubbing the wounds, a painful and scarring effect, aimed at keeping bacterial counts low. Honey dressing treatments allow wounds to remain moist, minimizing scarring.  While it may appear unattractive, the antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties of honey keeps wounds germ-free and speeds healing.

Honey Dressing Versus Silver Sulfadiazene Dressing for Wound Healing in Burn Patients: A Retrospective Study

J Cutan Aesthet Surg, 2011 Sep 4

OBJECTIVE:

The aim was to evaluate the effect of honey dressing and silver sulfadiazene (SSD) dressing on wound healing in burn patients.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: 

We retrospectively reviewed the records of 108 patients (14-68 years of age), with first and second degree burns of less than 50% of the total body surface area admitted to our institution, over a period of 5 years (2004-2008). Fifty-one patients were treated with honey dressings and 57 with SSD. Time elapsed since burn, site, percentage, degree and depth of burns, results of culture sensitivity at various time intervals, duration of healing, formation of post-treatment hypertrophic scar, and/or contracture were recorded and analyzed.

RESULTS:

The average duration of healing was 18.16 and 32.68 days for the honey and SSD group, respectively. Wounds of all patients reporting within 1 h of burns became sterile with the honey dressing in less than 7 days while there was none with SSD. All wounds treated with honey became sterile within 21 days while for SSD-treated wounds, this figure was 36.5%. A complete outcome was seen in 81% of all patients in the "honey group" while in only 37% patients in the "SSD group."

CONCLUSION:

Honey dressings make the wounds sterile in less time, enhance healing, and have a better outcome in terms of hypertropic scars and postburn contractures, as compared to SSD dressings.

Honey Wound Care Products Available for Veterinarians

Apitherapy for animals? Why not. It's been used for years. But now, with the prevelance of antibiotic resistant bacteria continuing to mount along with the over abundant use of antibiotics in our food chain, it's good that honey is included in the doctor's apothecary...

New sterile medical-grade Manuka Honey products launch at NAVC Conference.

IRVINE, Calif., Jan 09, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Links Medical Products Inc. (LMP) announced they will present their new medical-grade Manuka honey dressings, for use in advanced veterinary wound care, at the 2012 NAVC veterinary conference in Orlando, FL.

Made with 100% active medical-grade Manuka honey, the products provide veterinarians with dressings to help manage and treat animal wounds and burns and to speed healing.

Extensive research demonstrates medical-grade Manuka honey offers bacteriostatic, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties to promote accelerated wound healing. And the high osmotic activity of Manuka honey maintains a moist wound healing environment and helps clean and debride wounds while controlling malodors*...

"Our products are made with 100% active medical-grade Manuka honey, never a mix of honey," states Tom Buckley, Links Medical's CEO. "It's harvested exclusively from hives dedicated to bees that pollinate the Manuka bush (a species known as Leptospermum scoparium) native only to New Zealand."

Great care is taken to ensure the new LMP wound care products meet the highest standard of purity and bioactivity. LMP's brand of medical-grade Manuka honey is finely filtered to remove all processing particles and sterilized by gamma irradiation to eliminate bacteria, microorganisms, and spores. Gamma irradiation assures the honey retains its biologic activity.

* Extensive bibliography available upon request.

SOURCE: Links Medical Products Inc

Honey Effective in Management of Bed Sores

This supports other clinical cases of healing bed-ridden patients with chronic pressure ulcers, such as CHU, a Hospital in Limoges France, where they found Thyme honey to be most effective in healing stubborn wounds. For 25 years, they've treated thousands of cases of post-operative wounds and bed sores.

Use of Medihoney as a Non-Surgical Therapy for ChronicPressure Ulcers in Patients with Spinal Cord Injury

Spinal Cord, 20 Sept 2011

Study design: Prospective, observational study of 20spinal cord-injured (SCI) patients with chronic pressure ulcers (PUs) usingMedihoney.

Objectives: To determine the effects of Medihoney bybacterial growth, wound size and stage of healing in PUs.

Methods: We treated 20 SCI adult patients with chronicPUs using Medihoney. In all, 7 patients (35%) were female, and 13 (65%) weremale. The average patient age was 48.7 years (30-79). In all, 6 patients (30%)were tetraplegic and 14 (70%) were paraplegic. Also, 5 patients (25%) had gradeIV ulcers and 15 patients (75%) had grade III ulcers according to the NationalPressure Ulcer Advisory Panel.

Results: After 1 week of treatment with Medihoney, allswabs were void of bacterial growth. Overall 18 patients (90%) showed completewound healing after a period of 4 weeks, and the resulting scars were soft andelastic. No negative effects were noted from the treatment using Medihoney. No blood sugar level derailment wasdocumented.

Conclusion: The medical-honey approach to wound caremust be part of a comprehensive conservative surgical wound-care concept. Ourstudy indicates the highly valuable efficacy of honey in wound management andinfection control as measured by bacterial growth, wound size and healing stage.