Clinical Trial: Bee Honey As Topical Treatment For Infected Chronic Wound

Abstract

Background: Many studies have demonstrated that honey has antibacterial activity in- vitro. Honey was proved clinically to be effective to severe  infected chronic wounds not responding to conventional dressing.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of topical application of honey to chronic wound with infected necrotic tissue.

Methods: A female 48 year old was admitted to Khartoum North Teaching Hospital, with open fracture of tibia and fibula with chronic infected ulcerated wound. Swabs were taken from the infected wound for isolation and identification and viable bacterial count of the causative organism. Primary care of the wound was done which required grafting with split-thickness skin grafts and dressing with MEBO ointment was used. Daily topical application of honey was used instead of MEBO ointment.

Results: Isolated organism has been identified as Staphylococcus aureus, an  In vitro antibacterial test of honey showed significant activity against the isolated organism 28mm inhibition zone. Daily topical application of honey resulted in clean healthy granulation tissue after 2 weeks of treatment. Wound was reduced in size with healthy granulation tissue and split skin graft was done and complete healing was obtained after 6 weeks.

Conclusion: Honey accelerates wound healing with promotion of healthy granulation tissue in short period. Honey exerted strong antibacterial activity against infected organism and helped graft taking.