Nanocrystalline Silver and Its Impact on Wound Healing

Silver was one of the first metals discovered and used by man. It was also one of the first medications used to treat or prevent a specific condition. Crede used a 1% silver nitrate solution to prevent and treat opthalmia neonatorum in 1884, just seven years after Pasteur had published his Germ Theory of Disease. In the early 20th century, hammered silver foils and colloidal silver were used to treat indolent wounds. Caregivers reported seeing a decrease in rubor in wounds treated with silver, but with the discovery of antibiotics, research that might have shown why this occurred was never undertaken. In the 1960s, silver was reintroduced to wound care in order to control infections in burn units, first as silver nitrate and then as silver sulfadiazine.