Honey Compared with Silver sulphadiazine as Burn Wound Dressing

Objective: To assess the efficacy of Honey in comparison with 1% Silver sulphadiazine (SSD) as burn wound dressing. Study Design: Interventional Comparative study. Duration of the study: The study was carried out from Jan 2007 to Jun 2009, in the departments of Surgery Railways hospital Rawalpindi, and IIMC Hospital Islamabad. Materials and Methods: A total of 50 patients with superficial burns involving 5 to 40 percent body surface area were treated over the course of 30 months. Patients were divided into two equal groups randomly by consecutive sampling method, one group was dressed with honey as the topical antibacterial agent while the other was treated with 1% silversulphadiazine cream, and the results regarding duration of wound epithelialization, pain relief, swabs from wound to become culture negative, and cost of treatment were compared. Results: 50 patients were divided in two equal groups randomly for topical application of Honey (Group-l), and 1% Silver sulphadiazine (Group-ll), as wound dressings. From group-I, In 14 patients (56%) wound epithelialization occurred by 10th day, whereas in all 25 patients (100%) epithelialization occurred in 40 days. Those treated with SSD showed epithelialization in 15 patients (60%) between day 16 and 30, and 25 patients (100%) were found to be epithelialized by day 60. With honey dressings 17 patients (68%) were rendered culture negative by the end of first week, and 3 patients (12%) became culture negative by the end of second week, whereas with SSD dressings 11 patients (44%) could become swab culture negative after 1 week while the rest showed positive swab culture, it took 6 weeks for all patients to become culture negative. With honey dressings pain relief was achieved in 9 patients (36%) by 5th day, all patients were pain free by 18th day and mean time was 12 days. With SSD dressings 4 patients (16%) were pain free by 8th day while relief in all 25 patients (100%) was obtained by 26th day, mean time was 16.8 days. Cost of treatment with honey was approximately 48.5% of that with SSD. Conclusion: Thermal burns patients dressed with honey showed advantage compared to those dressed with SSD regarding early wound epithelialization, time taken in wounds to get culture negative, earlier pain relief and cost-effectiveness.