MEDIHONEY Dressings Shown to Improve Outcomes of Non-Healing Venous Leg Ulcers

Eleven of eleven wounds healed in 6 weeks or less.

Derma Sciences, Inc., a provider of advanced wound care products, announced today that its MEDIHONEY Dressings were the focus of a case series on eleven non-healing venous leg ulcers. These wounds had previously failed to heal while being managed with such therapeutic modalities as multi-layered compression, silver antimicrobial dressings, antibiotic therapy, and hyperbaric oxygen. Six of the wounds completely healed within 4 weeks, and all eleven wounds healed within 6 weeks. The typical duration for wound healing studies having complete closure as the endpoint is 12 weeks. The case series, “Topical Leptospermum Honey (MEDIHONEY) in Recalcitrant Venous Leg Wounds: A Preliminary Case Series” was published in the February edition of Advances in Skin & Wound Care, a peer-reviewed and Medline-indexed journal.

Speaking about the case series, Derma Sciences’ CEO Ed Quilty stated, “The body of evidence supporting the use of MEDIHONEY – particularly in non-healing venous leg ulcers – continues to grow. This case series validates the randomized controlled study published several months ago which showed that the addition of MEDIHONEY under compression helped to improve healing in these very difficult to heal leg ulcers. Leg ulcers are very burdensome for patients and their families, are painful, and recur often. With the evidence that has been accumulated for this patient population, MEDIHONEY is gaining traction on formularies as the lead dressing when wounds do not heal within 3-4 weeks of treatment with basic standard wound dressings. As was the case with the recent patient profile coming out of North Shore Long Island Jewish Hospital, these patients’ quality of life can be improved tremendously if their wounds healed more quickly.”

According to the authors (Tanisha Smith, DPM and Kennedy Legel, DPM of South Miami Hospital, and Jason R. Hanft, DPM, Director of Medical Education, Baptist Health South Florida), “As renewed interest in the use of sterile, medical-grade honey to achieve wound closure increases, justified by increased scientific and clinical data, the healing potential of Medihoney may serve as a pivotal clinical decision to accelerate the closure of recalcitrant wounds of the lower extremity.”

The data from this case series has also been submitted and accepted for presentation at two of the major wound conferences in 2009: The Diabetic Foot Global Conference (DFCon) in Los Angeles, March 19-21, and The Wound Healing Society Annual Conference (WHS) in Dallas, April 26-29.

Source: Derma Sciences

published: March 26, 2009 in: Companies, News, Products, Specialty