Comparison of honey-ghee dressing with collagen dressing in the management of superficial burn wounds in children

Abstract

Background: Options available for local management of burns include occlusive dressing and delayed skin grafting, open method and immediate excision followed by immediate skin grafting.

Methods: A randomised controlled clinical trial was conducted in Mulago Hospital, Kampala to compare Honey-Ghee dressing and Collagen dressing in the management of superficial burn wounds. : A total of 52 children with superficial burn injury were studied to assess the efficacy and the safety of Collagen as a dressing in comparison with Honey-Ghee dressing.

Results: The mean duration of wound healing of the 26 patients dressed with Collagen was 9.9 days while that for the 26 patients dressed with Honey-Ghee was 12.3 days. Collagen dressed wounds healed significantly faster than Honey-Ghee dressed wounds. Four (15.38%) patients of the 26 patients dressed with collagen developed wound infection while 5 (19.23%) of the 26 patients dressed with Honey Ghee dressing developed wound infection. There was no significant difference between the percentages. The organisms causing wound infections were Staphylococcus aurous (33.3%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (33.3%), Citrobacter freundii (22.2%) and Escherichia coli (11.1%).