Commercial Silver-Based Dressings: In Vitro and Clinical Studies in Treatment of Chronic and Burn Wounds

Chronic wounds are a major health problem because of delayed healing, causing hardships for the patient. The infection present in these wounds plays a role in delayed wound healing. Silver wound dressings have been used for decades, beginning in the 1960s with silver sulfadiazine for infection prevention for burn wounds. Since that time, there has been a large number of commercial silver dressings that have obtained FDA clearance. In this review, we examine the literature involving in vitro and in vivo (both animal and human clinical) studies with commercial silver dressings and attempt to glean the important characteristics of these dressings in treating infected wounds. The primary presentation of the literature is in the form of detailed tables. The narrative part of the review focuses on the different types of silver dressings, including the supporting matrix, the release characteristics of the silver into the surroundings, and their toxicity. Though there are many clinical studies of chronic and burn wounds using silver dressings that we discuss, it is difficult to compare the performances of the dressings directly because of the differences in the study protocols. We conclude that silver dressings can assist in wound healing, although it is difficult to provide general treatment guidelines. From a wound dressing point of view, future studies will need to focus on new delivery systems for silver, as well as the type of matrix in which the silver is deposited. Clearly, adding other actives to enhance the antimicrobial activity, including the disruption of mature biofilms is of interest. From a clinical point of view, the focus needs to be on the wound healing characteristics, and thus randomized control trials will provide more confidence in the results. The application of different wound dressings for specific wounds needs to be clarified, along with the application protocols. It is most likely that no single silver-based dressing can be used for all wounds.