Use of honey as a treatment for severe echtyma gangrenosum

For more than 25 years, honey has been employed to facilitate the healing of complex wounds with excellent results. Here, we report the case of a two-and-a-half-year-old agammaglobulinemia patient admitted in our unit for severe sepsis with extensive skin necrosis in the groin, penis and scrotum. An Ecthyma Gangrenosum was corroborated by the isolation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in wound swab culture. The child was treated by broad-spectrum antibiotics. Following resuscitation, the prognosis of external genitalia remained reserved. An extended necrosectomy was performed on the groin, leaving a large and deep wound. No improvement occurred with standard local therapy; moreover, the striking particularity of the present immunosuppressed case was that necrosis extended and engaged the genitalia. Such condition left us with no alternative except to try honey dressings without much conviction, which, surprisingly, resulted in an improvement in the wound, until total healing was achieved. Honey seems to be the local treatment of choice for ecthyma gangrenosum.