For
several years now medical experts from the University
of Bonn have been clocking up largely positive experience
with what is known as medihoney. They have found that
even chronic wounds infected with multi-resistant bacteria
often healed within a few weeks.
The fact that honey can help wounds to heal is something
that was known to the ancient Egyptians several thousand
years ago. And in the two World Wars, poultices with
honey were used to assist the healing process in soldiers’
wounds.
Bonn pediatricians have been pioneering the use of medihoney
in Germany with astonishing success: Dead tissue is
rejected faster, and the wounds heal more rapidly. Moreover,
changing dressings is less painful, since the poultices
are easier to remove without damaging the newly formed
layers of skin. Some wounds often smell unpleasant and
are an enormous strain on the patient, honey helps here,
too, by reducing the smell. In the meantime two dozen
hospitals in Germany are using honey in their treatment
of wounds. Despite all the success there have hitherto
been very few reliable clinical studies of its effectiveness.
In conjunction with colleagues from Düsseldorf,
Homburg and Berlin, the Bonn medical staff now wants
to remedy this. With the Woundpecker Data Bank, which
they have developed themselves, they will be recording
and evaluating over 100 courses of disease over the
next few months.
