Burn wound therapy with
silver-kaolin, a topical agent applied as an
aerosol spray, was evaluated in male rats given a 20 per cent total body surface area, full thickness dorsal scald
burn.
Burn wounds treated with
silver-kaolin healed at rates comparable to untreated
wounds. No significant differences were noted in the numbers or types of organisms colonizing the
wounds of treated and untreated rats at 5, 12 and 19 days post-
burn. To evaluate the effectiveness of
silver-kaolin in treating
burn wound sepsis, rats were inoculated on the
wound surface with 2.5 x 10(8) Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This inoculum resulted in 100 per cent mortality in untreated rats. Rats treated with
silver-kaolin had a mortality rate of 71 per cent, compared to a 9 per cent mortality rate in rats treated with 1 per cent
silver sulphadiazine. When
silver-kaolin was applied to the
wound prior to bacterial inoculation, the mortality rate was reduced to 6 per cent. When
wounds were treated with
kaolin alone and then inoculated with bacteria, the mortality rate was 50 per cent, indicating that part of the effectiveness of
silver-kaolin appeared to be due to a barrier effect. These results indicate that
silver-kaolin may be useful for preventive topical antimicrobial
therapy of acute
burns or after
wound debridement or excision, but is not suitable for
therapy of
wounds previously colonized by microorganisms.