Local application of honey for treatment of neonatal postoperative wound infection

A. Vardi, Z. Barzilay, N. Linder, H. A. Cohen, G. Paret, A. Barzilai*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

86 Scopus citations

Abstract

Honey has been described in ancient and modem medicine as being effective in the healing of various infected wounds. In this report we present our experience in nine infants with large, open, infected wounds that failed to heal with conventional treatment. Conventional treatment was defined as having failed if after ≤ 14 d of intravenous antibiotic and cleaning the wound with chlorhexidine 0.05 % W/V in aqueous solution and fusidic acid ointment the wound was still open, oozing pus, and swab cultures were positive. All infants showed marked clinical improvement after 5 d of treatment with topical application of 5-10 ml of fresh unprocessed honey twice daily. The wounds were closed, clean and sterile in all infants after 21 d of honey application. There were no adverse reactions to the treatment. We conclude that honey is useful in the treatment of post-surgical wounds that are infected and do not respond to conventional systemic and local antibiotic treatment.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)429-432
Number of pages4
JournalActa Paediatrica, International Journal of Paediatrics
Volume87
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 1998

Keywords

  • Honey
  • Infection
  • Treatment
  • Wound

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