Comparing active Leptospermum honey dressing with conventional dressing in skin graft donor sites

Background: active leptospermum honey has non-peroxideantibacterial and anti-inflammatory effects, rendering it suitable forwound healing. leptospermum honey is endemic in new zealandbelonging to the manuka bush (leptospermum scoparium). theobjective of the present research was to compare the efficacy ofmanuka honey dressing with conventional dressing regardingskin graft donor sites following a burn injury.methods: this study was carried out in the department of surgery,iran university of medical sciences, tehran, iran. it is a noncontrolledprospective trial, and an open-label study, analyzingleptospermum honey and conventional dressing for the treatmentof donor site areas for skin grafts. data were collected from 15eligible patients with burn wound. two independent donor siteswere formed, one of which was treated with active leptospermumhoney dressing and the other covered through the conventionalmethod. further collected was information regarding subjects’demographics, self-reported pain (vas scale), wound surfaceareas and bacterial wound culture.results: in the treatment of skin graft donor sites, honey provedto be less painful compared with the conventional group (p=0.001).three and seven days following treatment, a significant decreasewas observed in the mean wound surface areas in the honeygroup (p=0.001). there was no significant difference betweenhoney and conventional dressings with regards to the rate ofinfection (20% in honey dressing versus 40% in conventionalgroup; p=0.068).conclusions: active leptospermum honey dressing acceleratesthe healing process, decreases pain and has antimicrobial activity