A systematic review and meta-analysis of dressings used for wound healing: the efficiency of honey compared to silver on burns

Abstract

Background: Honey has the antibacterial effect of silver without the toxic effect of silver on the skin. Even so, silver is the dominant antibacterial dressing used in wound healing. Objectives: To evaluate the healing effects of honey dressings compared to silver dressings for acute or chronic wounds. Design: A systematic review with meta-analysis. Method: The search, conducted in seven databases, resulted in six randomised controlled trial studies from South Asia focusing on antibacterial properties and healing times of honey and silver. Result: Honey was more efficacious for wound healing than silver, as measured in the number of days needed for wounds to heal (pooled risk difference −20, 95% CI −0.29 to −0.11, p < .001). Honey turned out to have more antibacterial qualities than silver. Conclusion: All the included studies based on burns showed the unequivocal result that honey had an even more positive effect than silver on wound healing.

Keywords:

• antibacterial dressing
• burns
• honey
• silver
• wound healing

Acknowledgements

The work reported here has been supported by the Department of Health, Blekinge Institute of Technology, Karlskrona, Sweden. The authors are grateful for the help from the Library and from Lil Carleheden Ottosson and Inger Jönsson at the Blekinge Centre of Competence for their help with language revision. The authors are also grateful for the statistical support from Dr Magnus Ekström, Blekinge County Council. The authors have neither a conflict of interest nor competing interests concerning this paper.