Silver as biocides in burn and wound dressings and bacterial resistance to silver compounds

Abstract

Silver products have been used for thousands of years for their beneficial effects, often for hygiene and in more recent years as antimicrobials on wounds from burns, trauma, and diabetic ulcers. Silver sulfadiazine creams (Silvazine and Flamazine) are topical ointments that are marketed globally. In recent years, a range of wound dressings with slow-release Ag compounds have been introduced, including Acticoat, Actisorb Silver, Silverlon, and others. While these are generally accepted as useful for control of bacterial infections (and also against fungi and viruses), key issues remain, including importantly the relative efficacy of different silver products for wound and burn uses and the existence of microbes that are resistant to Ag+. These are beneficial products needing further study, although each has drawbacks. The genes (and proteins) involved in bacterial resistance to Ag have been defined and studied in recent years.

Supramolecular Structures as Carrier Systems Enabling the Use of Metal Ions in Antibacterial Therapy

“…: applying the so-called combined therapy, which uses two or more antibiotics administered simultaneously or combines the action of two different drugs in one molecule [8]. A promising alternative is the combination of chemotherapeutics with heavy metal ions, for example: silver, which has been known for its bactericidal properties since ancient times [9,10]. The ideal situation would be to use silver compounds to increase the antibacterial effectiveness of commonly known and used antibiotics.…”

Garlic ointment inhibits biofilm formation by bacterial pathogens from burn wounds

“…However, several studies have reported the emergence of strains that are resistant to most of these antimicrobial agents (Keen et al, 2010;Silver et al, 2006). Therefore, the use of novel antimicrobial agents to prevent biofilm formation by wound pathogens is essential.…”

Preparation of colloidal silver nanoparticles in poly(N-vinylpyrrolidone) by γ-irradiation

“…The synthesis of silver nanoparticles has attracted considerable interest due to their novel physicochemical properties and their potential applications in many fields such as medicine [1] (http://lifesilver.com/safety.html), textiles [2,3], sensors and detectors [4], catalysis [5], nanocomposites [6,7] as well as agriculture [8]. The antibacterial activity of silver-containing materials such as polyurethane foam can be used for water treatment [9].…”