The silver lining in wound management

Silver has been used in wound care since Roman times and has been in and out of vogue ever since.

Silver ions have the power to disrupt bacterial DNA so provide an excellent way of disabling bacteria on a wound bed and removing the need for oral antibiotics in most patients. Traditionally, in the human medical profession, silver was available as a cream in the form of silver sulfadiazine. In this formulation, it is a highly effective treatment for managing burn wounds but is also very effective to assist healing, resolving and preventing infection on other wound beds.

This cream is particularly useful for owners to apply to their pets with superficial wounds and deep grazes that are in an awkward location for bandage application. Silver is now manufactured into thin sheets allowing high concentrations of nanocrystalline silver particles to diffuse slowly into an infected wound bed. With no capacity to absorb any wound exudates, silver has been incorporated into hydrocolloid dressings to give the added dimension of the moist wound environment. Overall, silver is a very useful component to healing an infected wound and is often used by Visiting Vet Specialists.