Honey For Pressure Sores’ Healing--data Supporting Its Use In Clinical Practice

OBJECTIVE:A prospective, randomized, single-blind controlled clinical study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of topical homemade honey in the treatment of patients with pressure sores in Stage Ⅱ-Stage Ⅲ, assessing the ability of this simple dressing technique in easing pain while changing bandage, reducing the PH value of wounds secretion, decreasing wounds bacteria, and shortening the period of slough removing and fresh skin appearing as well as wounds healing. This study tenders efficacious methods to pressure sores curing and lays a basis for a systematic study on wound curing by homemade honey.METHOD:92patients with102pressure sores, who were all outpatients and inpatients visiting Tianjin Baodi Hospital during the period from January2010to January2012with one or two pressure sores in Stage Ⅱ-Stage Ⅲ, were involved in the study. All patients were randomly divided into3groups. The study was conducted to compare the effect of honey-coated (Honey Group) to Shengji Ointment-coated (Shengji Ointment Group) and the conventional Vaseline oil-coated (Vaseline oil Group) dressing on the observation projects below:1. pain grading while changing bandage;2. PH value of wounds secretion;3. result of wounds germiculture;4. period for slough removing;5. period for fresh skin appearing;6. period for wounds healing;7. PUSH grading (grades sum of wounds area, wounds exudation and wounds tissue type). The data recorded will be processed and analyzed by a statistical software IBM SPSS Statistics v20. The data concerned were presented in mean±standard deviation (x±s). Sample average comparison among the completely random groups was done in one-way ANOVA and the data of statistical significance were compared between groups with LSD; measurement data that were repeatedly measured should be analyzed by repeated-measured variance of quantitative data; matching measurement data will be handled in pair t test; enumeration data were dealt with chi-square test, and data are of statistical significance when P<0.05.RESULT:Honey group broke even with Shengji Ointment group in pain grading (P=0.623) and both were better than the vaseline group (P=0.010, P=0.038); wounds PH value of honey group was lower than Shengji Ointment which was lower than the vaseline group (P=0.000); antimicrobial effect of honey group was better than the other two groups (P=0.002, P=0.000); honey group broke even with Shengji Ointment group in slough removing period (P=0.762.), and both were better than vaseline group (P=0.022, P=0.049); honey group experienced shorter period than Shengji Ointment to have fresh skin appearance (P=0.042), and the latter group was shorter than the vaseline group (P=0.009); honey group had shorter healing period than Shengji Ointment (P=0.048) and the latter group had shorter period than the vaseline group (P=0.000); hence the overall PUSH grading showed that the honey group was better than Shengji Ointment group (P=0.044) and the Shengji Ointment group was no less better than the vaseline group (P=0.399)CONCLUSION:Honey dressing therapy provides an effective topical treatment for pressure sores in Stage Ⅱ-Stage Ⅲ. It does better than Shengji Ointment or vaseline in lowering the wounds PH value, bacteria resistance, quickening the appearance of fresh skin and healing period as well as the overall PUSH grading; honey group breaks even with Shengji Ointment group in creating moist healing environment, alleviating pain and removing the slough. Moreover, both do better than the vaseline group. Further research is necessary to determine the optimum dressing protocol.