Effect of the use of silver nanocrystals and silver sulfadiazine in the management of soft tissue lesions

Abstract

Background: Soft tissue lesions represent a health problem of greatmagnitude around the world. Multiple drugs have been used in theirtreatment. Silver sulfadiazine (SSD) and silver nanocrystals (SNC) areamong the most used. The purpose of this research was to compare theeffectiveness of SSD and SNC regarding the wound granulation rate,treatment time, antibiotic effect, and treatment cost and to determinethe frequency of these lesions in participants of this research.Methods: Data were collected from 50 patients with soft tissue lesionsin the Regional University Hospital Jose Maria Cabral y Baez (HRUJMCB),in Santiago, Dominican Republic. This study was approved by thebioethics committee of the Pontifical Catholic University Madre andMaestra (PUCMM) and the HRUJMCB. Patients were followed up from August2015 to February 2016. SPSS Statistics program was used to calculate Chisquare and assess statistical significance.Results: Fifty patients were included in this study, of whom 56% haddiabetic foot ulcers, 22% had vascular ulcers, and 22% had pressureulcers. In total, 42% of the patients were treated with SSD and 58%with SNC. Granulation rate was 71.4% for SSD and 89.6% for SNC, andpositive antibiotic effect was 15.9% for SSD and 25.9% for SNC. Atotal of 14.4% of patients treated with SSD ended their participationin the research between 8 and 14 days, 37.9% in 15-21 days, and 42.8%in >= 21 days. For SNC, 3.4% of patients concluded their participationin 0-7 days, 34.4% in 8-14 days, 37.9% in 15-21 days, and 24.1% in >=21 days. The distribution of economic costs in the SSD group was asfollows: USD0-22, 42.9%, and USD22-66, 57.2%, while in the SNC group,the distribution was as follows: USD0-22, 48.2%; USD22-66, 48.3%; andUSD66-110, 3.4%.Conclusion: There is no statistical significance in the results of thisstudy; however, in percentage, SNC are superior regarding the rate ofwound granulation, antibiotic effect, and healing time. Economic costfor both is similar.