INFECTED BURN SKIN

Miss Fenella Halstead, NIHR SRMRC Clinical Scientist at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, explained, “As resistance to antibiotics grows, we need to find ways to replace them with alternative topical agents that can kill bacteria and help our burns patients. The finding that it is effective at far lower concentrations than previously thought therefore offers hope for the development of novel treatments. The current use of acetic acid in clinical settings has been limited due to concerns of patient tolerability. The study, published in PLOS ONE, demonstrated that low concentrations of acetic acid can be used to treat biofilms, and therefore could be used as alternatives to topical (surface applied) antimicrobials and traditional antimicrobial dressings for preventing bacterial colonisation of burns. Infections of burn wounds are difficult to treat with traditional antibiotics as they do not effectively reach the wound, and the infecting organisms are often highly antibiotic resistant. Local infection of the burn wound and subsequent sepsis (blood poisoning) are key concerns for patients, with sepsis the leading cause of death among patients with burn wounds.

INFECTED BURN SKIN

Researchers from the University of Birmingham and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Surgical Reconstruction and Microbiology Research Centre (SRMRC) investigated the antibacterial activity of acetic acid against key burn wound colonising organisms growing both planktonically and as biofilms.īurns are a common traumatic injury and prone to becoming infected due to loss of a normal skin barrier. Highly diluted acetic acid, an active ingredient of household vinegar, has been shown to be an effective alternative agent to prevent infection and kill bacteria found in burn wounds.

Infected burn